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Fagus sylvatica
Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech, is a large, graceful deciduous tree in the beech family with smooth silvery-grey bark, large leaf area, and a short trunk with low branches. It is native to much of Europe, growing in humid climates.
The species is cultivated as an ornamental. Although slightly toxic due to the tannins and alkaloids they contain, the nuts are consumed by animals and humans. The trees are also used for timber.
Fagus sylvatica is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 50 metres (160 feet) tall and 3 m (10 ft) trunk diameter, though more typically 25–35 m (82–115 ft) tall and up to 1.5 m (5 ft) trunk diameter. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 4 m (13 ft) tall. Undisturbed, the European beech has a lifespan of 300 years; one tree at the Valle Cervara site was more than 500 years old, the oldest known in the northern hemisphere. In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80–120 years of age. 30 years are needed to attain full maturity (as compared to 40 for American beech). Like most trees, its form depends on the location; in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over 30 m (98 ft), with branches being high up on the trunk. In open locations, it will become much shorter (typically 20 m (66 ft)) but more massive with a broader crown and stouter trunk.
The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, 5–10 cm (2–3+7⁄8 in) long and 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) broad, with 6–7 veins on each side of the leaf (as opposed to 7–10 veins in F. orientalis). When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins. The buds are long and slender, 15–30 mm (5⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long and 2–3 mm (3⁄32–1⁄8 in) thick, but thicker, up to 4–5 mm (1⁄8–1⁄4 in), where the buds include flower buds.
The leaves of beech are often not abscissed (dropped) in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring. This process is called marcescence. This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge (making beech hedges attractive screens, even in winter), but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature.
The species is monoecious. The male flowers are borne in small catkins, a hallmark of the Fagales order. The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts 15–20 mm (5⁄8–3⁄4 in) long and 7–10 mm (1⁄4–3⁄8 in) wide at the base; there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 5–6 months after pollination. Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row. Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old.
The European beech is the most abundant hardwood species in Austrian, German and Swiss forests. The native range extends from the north, in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, western Ukraine, and Romania, through Europe to France, southern England, Spain (on the Cantabrian, Iberian and Central mountain ranges), Italy, and east to northwest Turkey, where it exhibits an interspecific cline with the oriental beech (Fagus orientalis), which replaces it further east. In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech; these hybrid trees are named Fagus × taurica Popl. [Fagus moesiaca (Domin, Maly) Czecz.]. In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean and Sicily, it grows only in mountain forests, at 600–1,800 m (1,969–5,906 ft) altitude.
Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BCE, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages; it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food. The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods. Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin. Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve. It is often planted in Britain. Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate. If native, they would represent the northern range of the species, although molecular genetic analyses imply that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age. The beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.
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Fagus sylvatica
Fagus sylvatica, the European beech or common beech, is a large, graceful deciduous tree in the beech family with smooth silvery-grey bark, large leaf area, and a short trunk with low branches. It is native to much of Europe, growing in humid climates.
The species is cultivated as an ornamental. Although slightly toxic due to the tannins and alkaloids they contain, the nuts are consumed by animals and humans. The trees are also used for timber.
Fagus sylvatica is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 50 metres (160 feet) tall and 3 m (10 ft) trunk diameter, though more typically 25–35 m (82–115 ft) tall and up to 1.5 m (5 ft) trunk diameter. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 4 m (13 ft) tall. Undisturbed, the European beech has a lifespan of 300 years; one tree at the Valle Cervara site was more than 500 years old, the oldest known in the northern hemisphere. In cultivated forest stands trees are normally harvested at 80–120 years of age. 30 years are needed to attain full maturity (as compared to 40 for American beech). Like most trees, its form depends on the location; in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over 30 m (98 ft), with branches being high up on the trunk. In open locations, it will become much shorter (typically 20 m (66 ft)) but more massive with a broader crown and stouter trunk.
The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, 5–10 cm (2–3+7⁄8 in) long and 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) broad, with 6–7 veins on each side of the leaf (as opposed to 7–10 veins in F. orientalis). When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins. The buds are long and slender, 15–30 mm (5⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long and 2–3 mm (3⁄32–1⁄8 in) thick, but thicker, up to 4–5 mm (1⁄8–1⁄4 in), where the buds include flower buds.
The leaves of beech are often not abscissed (dropped) in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring. This process is called marcescence. This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge (making beech hedges attractive screens, even in winter), but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature.
The species is monoecious. The male flowers are borne in small catkins, a hallmark of the Fagales order. The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts 15–20 mm (5⁄8–3⁄4 in) long and 7–10 mm (1⁄4–3⁄8 in) wide at the base; there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 5–6 months after pollination. Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row. Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old.
The European beech is the most abundant hardwood species in Austrian, German and Swiss forests. The native range extends from the north, in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, western Ukraine, and Romania, through Europe to France, southern England, Spain (on the Cantabrian, Iberian and Central mountain ranges), Italy, and east to northwest Turkey, where it exhibits an interspecific cline with the oriental beech (Fagus orientalis), which replaces it further east. In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with oriental beech; these hybrid trees are named Fagus × taurica Popl. [Fagus moesiaca (Domin, Maly) Czecz.]. In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean and Sicily, it grows only in mountain forests, at 600–1,800 m (1,969–5,906 ft) altitude.
Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that F. sylvatica did not arrive in England until about 4000 BCE, or 2,000 years subsequent to the English Channel forming following the ice ages; it could have been an early introduction by Stone Age humans, who used the nuts for food. The beech is classified as a native in the south of England and as a non-native in the north where it is often removed from 'native' woods. Localised pollen records have been recorded in the North of England from the Iron Age by Sir Harry Godwin. Changing climatic conditions may put beech populations in southern England under increased stress and while it may not be possible to maintain the current levels of beech in some sites it is thought that conditions for beech in north-west England will remain favourable or even improve. It is often planted in Britain. Similarly, the nature of Norwegian beech populations is subject to debate. If native, they would represent the northern range of the species, although molecular genetic analyses imply that these populations represent intentional introduction from Denmark before and during the Viking Age. The beech in Vestfold and at Seim north of Bergen in Norway is now spreading naturally and regarded as native.