The Crystal Birch
Betula hyalinus

Found only in Espias, in and around the capital, Shin-kyo (typically within a 50km range), they are considered the rarest and most beautiful tree in all of Enayra.

They take their name from the almost crystal-like nature of their leaves and their bark, which peels off in the fall in thin, transparent, crystalline sheaves.

The leaves begin to bud in mid-Spring, and flower into beautiful leaves within a month. The leaves first flower clear, like glass, but over the course of the summer begin to take on a variety of colours, some unable to be reproduced by even the most skilled dye-crafters in the land. As light passes through them, the play of colour on the ground is evocative of a stain glass, and as wind tousles the branches, the leaves create a beautiful, bell-like harmony.

The leaves and bark of the tree are so incredibly delicate that when touched by human hands, they crumble into a fine powder. However, after they’ve done this, they seem to lose all colour, and cannot be used for replicating their pigments in life.

Because of their delicate nature, the leaves don’t actually fall in the Autumn season, instead they seem to almost disintegrate in their own time. Ironically, the period of their disintegration seems to coincide with the arrival of the Harvest Moons, and the moon-viewing festivals of the Espian people.

Thousands of Epsians, and even foreigners from other lands, will flock to the capital to witness the some of the best views of the Harvest Moon in Enayra, on the shores where the capital is built, beneath the Crystalline Wave. As this region is coastal, coastal winds often blow the crystal dust remains of the leaves across the city, while the moon hangs low, and large in the sky.

For some reason, when allowed to disintegrate naturally, the leaves will maintain their colour as they turn to dust for a period of about five minutes, after which they go colourless again, and the dust becomes like sand.

They are unable to grow anywhere but within their native habitat, and if moved, or transplanted, they will will die within hours. They do not produce any kind of nutlet to further propagate their species, or allow them to be planted elsewhere. It has been observed that new trees simply spring out of the ground. Their root systems go very, very deep, and are also crystalline in nature.

The birch is considered good luck, and even sacred by some Enayrans, and most Espians view them as a symbol of national pride. It is viewed as the worst of omens to damage the trees, by accident or intentionally, and it is certainly illegal, on pain of death, to intentionally damage or destroy one of the trees in Espias. By Imperial decree, the trees are under the personal protection of His Majesty the Emperor.

Many naturalists believe the phenomena of the Crystal Birches is related to whatever transformed the coast of Enayra where Shin-kyo is built into the formation knowing as the Crystal Wave.

For the uninitiated: the Crystal Wave, or Crystalline Shelf, is a large seemingly natural formation of earth. What might have once been a natural sheer sea-cliff, seems to have been transformed into an almost wave-shaped structure that rises up a massive wave and towers hundred of kilometres over region. About halfway up, just above where the “trough” of the wave would be, the earth and rock structure of the formation gives wave to more of the multi-coloured crystal and the rest of the massive, curving structure is entirely made of that material. It curves back over, and crests like a wave in the sea would. This crystal material, based on studies, behaves similar to the crystal material of the birch, except the wave does not crumble or dissipate on its own.

No one knows what caused these phenomena, but many believe it’s as old as Enayra itself. Some even pose that the dragons know the truth, but refuse to speak of it–for only the dragons could have been alive to witness whatever caused it.