Rare woods - curly birch
Curly birch - one of the highly valued rare woods
The grainy pattern of a curly birch belongs to the world’s ten most expensive among rare woods. High demand for rare woods led to the need for protecting wildlife of tropical rainforests with the CITES regulation (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Curly birch is not considered as endangered species because curly birch is a genetical variation (mutation) of a silver birch which gives the tree its unique pattern. Therefore, the cultivation of curly birch is environmentally friendly because valuable wood originates mainly from former agricultural areas.
By Dr Ivar Sibul
Associate Professor of Dendrology and Forest Entomology
Chair of Silviculture and Forest Ecology
Institute of Forestry and Rural Engineering
Estonian University of Life Sciences
Curly birch tree is a slow growing, short tree with a trunk covered by distinctive bumps and ridges that conceal a wood with a marble- or burl like pattern. The wood of curly birch is dense and very heavy.
This beautiful, rare wood is highly valued both in the interior decoration of high-end cars, yachts and in the manufacture of furniture for important buildings.
The furniture of the Estonian Parliament is partly made of Curly birch rare wood and it has been used extensively in the interior decoration of the Presidential Palace.
The rare wood of the Curly birch is also used to make the handles of world-famous Nordic Puukko knives because it is beautiful, tough, and durable.
The beauty of Karelian birch is apparent by the fact that Peter Carl Faberge used Karelian birch wood in 1917 to make a famous Faberge egg intended to be a gift from the Russian Emperor to his mother.