Himalayan Birch

Planted throughout the Gardens
Himalayan birch (Betula
utilis) is a common tree throughout the Himalayans
from Afghanistan to China. It has different coloured bark
depending on where is comes from. The white barked Himalayan
birches (Betula
utilis subspecies jacquemontii)
are native to the western Himalayans. Chocolate coloured Himalayan
birchs (Betula
utilis subspecies utilis)
are native to the central Himalayans and those with copper
coloured bark (Betula
utilis subsp.
albosinensis) are mainly found in northern
china.
Aside from being beautiful trees in our gardens, the bark of
Himalayan birches is used for writing on. The earliest dated
documents (oldest known Buddhist manuscripts - Gandhāran Buddhist
texts) are from Afghanistan written in 1st century CE. Indeed
birch bark was commonly used for writing across Europe, Russia and
Asia until the widespread introduction of paper in 15 Century
CE. Today, scared manuscripts are still written on birch bark
in India.
Commonly Himalayan birches are seen in gardens as single stemmed
trees which means they have been grafted, grown from cuttings or
pruned when young. To achieve a multi stemmed tree, they must
be seed grown so they naturally have more than one stem.
Ness has a collection of around 300 types of Birch growing through
the garden, including 10 of the world's rarest species.
This globally important collection of these beautiful
trees is due to the research work of Dr. Hugh
McCallister.
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