Circle Lip. The downy birch eke out a life in its fame in the shadow of the silver birch. This should be familiar to most people with its white bark. Downy birch fans can be all the happier that this has been voted Tree of the Year 2023. And even better: the newly minted celebrity can even be found in Lippe – in the Hiddeser Bent.
“The Hiddeser Bent is one of the two last living raised bogs in North Rhine-Westphalia and thus the natural habitat of the downy birch,” writes the state association in a press release. The downy birch is a true quick-change artist: “It can withstand temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius, but it can also withstand stormy winds or strong sunlight,” explains Claus Gröger from the forest department of the state association.
Downy birch provides shelter for other trees
The young leaves of downy birch (left) in direct comparison to the leaves of silver birch (right). (© Landesverband Lippe)
The seeds of the birch are spread several hundred meters by the wind, so that they can quickly colonize bare areas and thus contribute to natural forest cover. “This makes the downy birch one of the pioneer tree species, i.e. one of the tree species that can cope with many locations and can quickly adapt to new conditions.” This has the advantage that other forest tree species can develop under the protection of the downy birch, he adds.
However, the tree of the year needs a sunny location, if this is not the case, the birches could compete with each other. “It is easily confused with the silver birch, but it lacks a typical characteristic of the silver birch. The downy birch has hardly any overhanging branches, if any, but its twigs grow horizontally to obliquely upwards. In addition, the leaf shape is somewhat more rounded and the underside and the twig are slightly downy hairy, which is particularly noticeable on young shoots,” explains Gröger.
Downy birch rarely reaches its maximum age
The downy birch is a fast-moving tree species, under optimal conditions it can live up to 150 years, but mostly it only reaches an age of 60 to 80 years and a growth height of up to 30 meters. It is one of the tree species that is becoming rarer in Germany, as its natural habitat, the moor, is constantly disappearing. In Germany, 90 percent of the moors are now drained, which means that the downy birch is being increasingly pushed out by the silver birch, even in damp locations.
2023-08-17 23:53:43
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