Author: Roth, Family: Betulaceae
Latin Synonyms: betula verrucosa (Ehrh.), betula alba L.
other species: betula pubescens (Ehrh.), betula benta
Betula pendula is the common white birch of Middle Europe that contains the sweet sap, which is
used externally as hair lotion, and fermented into wine. The leaves have diuretic properties and can
be used as part of a spring tonic, fresh young leaves may also be added to a salad. The cambium is
bitter and astringent, so it can't have been the one Ayla used for food.
Betula pubescens grows in colder, more northern climates, and is used in the same way.
Betula benta is an American variety called black birch or sweet birch whose cambium is sweet and
can be eaten, and, according to MGMH, the bark makes a tonic for dysentery and is useful in
'female obstructions'.
I've found no reference to the bark being used as a cask for broken limbs.
Photo by Sanatan Eva Marbach
More about birch in MGMH
Text References: Healing / Ritual
| CB 6, 77 |
Birchbark glued together with balsam gum, some reinforced with a
well-placed knot of sinew, were folded into shapes for many uses. |
| CB 14, 234 |
Brac's arm broken by hyena
Ayla had given the boy painkilling medicine that put him to sleep, then
cleaned his wounds with an antiseptic solution, set the arm, and put on a cast
of dampened birch bark. It would dry stiff and hard and hold the bones in place. She'd have to watch it, though, in case it swelled too much. |
| CB 15, 236 |
She cut away the birchbark cast and examined the boy.
"His arm should be as good as new before long," she pronounced. "He'll be
scarred, but the wounds are healing and the arm is set well. I'd better put
another cast on it, though." |
| CB 27, 446 |
I'll boil some black birchbark and bring the tea to you. I wish it were
fall - I'd get that rattlesnake root Iza got for me. |
| MH 28, 457 |
Ritual Purification
After putting the sweet-smelling, lather-producing, dried coelanthus
flowers into the hot water, she added fronds of wood fern and a few columbine
flowers she had picked on her way, and then budding birch twigs for the
smell of wintergreen, (...). |
| PP 18, 302 |
Roshario's Arm
"Birchbark?" Roshario said.
"When it is soaked in water, it softens and is easy to shape and fit.
It gets hard and stiff as it dries, and will hold your arm rigid so the
bone will heal straight, even when you are up and around." |
| PP 19, 325 |
"Ayla took off the old birchbark and put on a fresh piece yesterday. Except that it's smaller from not using it, my arm seems healed, but she wants me to keep this on for a while longer. She says once I start using my arm again, it will fill out." |
| PP 38, 634 |
Drink for the Mother's Festival
(...) it was a drink that was served warm. The taste was pleasant and
vaguely familiar. Ayla thought it might be some kind of mildly fermented
fruit juice flavored with herbs. She was surprised to learn from Solandia
that birch sap was a primary ingredient, though fruit juice was only part
of the recipe. |
| PP 40, 682 |
Guban's Broken Leg
"I'll get birchbark when he's asleep, and maybe I can make some crutches for him. He'll want to move around later." |
| PP 40, 688 |
Ayla applied the birchbark cast in the evening. |
Text References: Food
| CB 9, 133 |
Birch had a sweet sap, too, but not as sweet as maple.
description cf. maple sap |
| CB 20, 322 |
Ayla's Cave
The sap is up, the inner bark will be sweet now, especially maple.
No, maple doesn't grow this high, but there's birch, and fir. |
| MH 27, 442 |
Mamutoi Spring Feast
For the big Spring Feast, nothing left over from the previous year
would be eaten. (...) Every edible vegetable product they could find was
collected. Birch and willow catkins; (...) the juicy inner cambium bark
of pines and birch, sweet with new rising sap. |
| PP 24, 410 |
'Pancakes'
While she waited for them to plump up and absorb more of the water,
she stripped away the outer bark of a birch-tree, scraped off some of the
soft, sweet, edible cambium layer underneath, and added it to her root-starch-and-berry mixture. (...)
Then she took small handfuls of the doughy root starch, mixed with
the berries, the sweet, flavorful licorice-fern root stalk, and the sweetening
and thickening sap from the birch cambium, and dropped them on the hot
rocks. |
| PP 24, 411 |
She started their herb tea steeping, adding some birch cambium for the wintergreen flavor, then took the pine cones out of the edge of the fire. They sat by the fire for a while, sipping their tea and eating pine nuts, cracked with rocks or sometimes with their teeth. |
| PP 31, 520 |
S'Armunai
"I gave her something to put the men to sleep, and I told her to put
it in their favorite drink - a brew they fermented from birch sap."
"The Mamutoi make a similar drink," Jondalar commented. |
| PP 32, 535 |
There was some of the lightly fermented brew made from birch sap, but
Ayla decided she would not drink it, (...) tonight she wanted all her wits
about her. |
| PP 32, 538-539 |
She ate several more mouthfuls, then handed the bowl to Epadoa, smiled knowingly, and downed her cup of birch brew. |
| PP 36, 611 |
Solandia had shown her the small supply of fermented beverages, mostly
birch beer, that she said would make the occasion festive. |
|
Abbreviations |
Editions |
| CB |
The Clan of the Cave Bear |
The page numbers refer to the hardcover editions by Crown Publishers, Inc, New York 1980, 1982, 1985, 1990.
Book 1-3 are the Special Collector's Edition, I don't know if the page numbers differ from those of the 'normal' hardcover editions. |
| VH |
The Valley of Horses |
| MH |
The Mammoth Hunters |
| PP |
The Plains of Passage |
| (...) |
omission |
Copyright |
| ... |
original in text |
All book quotes: © Copyright Jean M. Auel
The format and text contents of this site are the property of the author |
| MGMH |
'A Modern Herbal', by Mrs. M. Grieve |
Comments, suggestions, errors, anything else ... emails are welcome!
|
Author: Roth, Family: Betulaceae