Birch

Locations
Birch can be found all over the Hampshire campus.

How to Identify
One easily identifiable and distinct feature of birch is that the bark has a horizontal pattern. It is a medium size tree with pealing and papery bark. Many types of birch have a silver or white coloring. (Elias, Thomas. Dykeman, Peter. “Edible Wild Plants”.)

Uses
Dead bark that is no longer attached to the tree makes a fantastic fire starter, creating a long lasting and strong flame. Bark has also been used for paper, containers, even canoes. The sap can be tapped like a maple and used to make syrup or fermented into an alcoholic beverage. However, for syrup the sap boils down to about one one-hundredth of what you started with, as opposed to about one fortieth for maple sap. Young leaves can be eaten raw as well as the inner bark (though not recommended unless you are in desperate situations, so as not to harm the tree).