Beech

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Use dmy dates Template:Automatic taxobox Beech (genus Fagus) is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted species in two distinct subgenera, Englerianae Template:Small and Fagus.<ref name="Denk-2024">Template:Cite journal</ref> The subgenus Englerianae is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known species of subgenus Fagus are native to Europe, western and eastern Asia and eastern North America. They are high-branching trees with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark.

The European beech Fagus sylvatica is the most commonly cultivated species, yielding a utility timber used for furniture construction, flooring and engineering purposes, in plywood, and household items. The timber can be used to build homes. Beechwood makes excellent firewood. Slats of washed beech wood are spread around the bottom of fermentation tanks for Budweiser beer. Beech logs are burned to dry the malt used in some German smoked beers. Beech is also used to smoke Westphalian ham, andouille sausage, and some cheeses.

DescriptionEdit

File:Fagus sylvatica leaf 001.jpg

Leaf of Fagus sylvatica

File:Beechnuts during autumn.jpg

Beechnuts in autumn

Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, with a bitter, astringent, or mild and nut-like taste.

The European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is the most commonly cultivated, although few important differences are seen between species aside from detail elements such as leaf shape. The leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from Template:Convert long and Template:Convert broad.

The bark is smooth and light gray. The fruit is a small, sharply three-angled nut Template:Convert long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks Template:Convert long, known as cupules. The husk can have a variety of spine- to scale-like appendages, the character of which is, in addition to leaf shape, one of the primary ways beeches are differentiated.<ref name="Shen-1992">Template:Cite thesis</ref> The nuts are called beechnuts<ref name="Lyle-2010">Template:Cite book</ref> or beech mast and have a bitter taste (though not nearly as bitter as acorns) and a high tannin content.

Taxonomy and systematicsEdit

The most recent classification system of the genus recognizes 14 species in two distinct subgenera, subgenus Englerianae and Fagus.<ref name="Denk-2024" /> Beech species can be diagnosed by phenotypical and/or genotypical traits. Species of subgenus Engleriana are found only in East Asia, and are notably distinct from species of subgenus Fagus in that these beeches are low-branching trees, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark and a substantially different nucleome (nuclear DNA), especially in noncoding, highly variable gene regions such as the spacers of the nuclear-encoded ribosomal RNA genes (ribosomal DNA).<ref name="Cardoni-2021">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="Denk-2005">Template:Cite journal</ref> Further differentiating characteristics include the whitish bloom on the underside of the leaves, the visible tertiary leaf veins, and a long, smooth cupule-peduncle. Originally proposed but not formalized by botanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, this group comprised two Japanese species, F. japonica and F. okamotoi, and one Chinese species, F. engleriana.<ref name="Shen-1992" /> While the status of F. okamotoi remains uncertain, the most recent systematic treatment based on morphological and genetic data confirmed a third species, F. multinervis, endemic to Ulleungdo, a South Korean island in the Sea of Japan.<ref name="Denk-2024" /> The beeches of Ulleungdo have been traditionally treated as a subspecies of F. engleriana, to which they are phenotypically identical,<ref name="Shen-1992" /><ref name="Denk-2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> or as a variety of F. japonica.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The differ from their siblings by their unique nuclear and plastid genotypes.<ref name="Denk-2024" /><ref name="Jiang-2022">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Cardoni-2021" />

The better known subgenus Fagus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-gray bark. This group includes five extant species in continental and insular East Asia (F. crenata, F. longipetiolata, F. lucida, and the cryptic sister species F. hayatae and F. pashanica), two pseudo-cryptic species in eastern North America (F. grandifolia, F. mexicana), and a species complex of at least four species (F. caspica, F. hohenackeriana, F. orientalis, F. sylvatica) in Western Eurasia. Their genetics are highly complex and include both species-unique alleles as well as alleles and ribosomal DNA spacers that are shared between two or more species.<ref name="Denk-2024" /> The western Eurasian species are characterized by morphological and genetical gradients.

Research suggests that the first representatives of the modern-day genus were already present in the Paleocene of Arctic North America (western Greenland<ref name="Grímsson-2016">Template:Cite journal</ref>) and quickly radiated across the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, with a first diversity peak in the Miocene of northeastern Asia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The contemporary species are the product of past, repeated reticulate evolutionary processes (outbreeding, introgression, hybridization).<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /> As far as studied, heterozygosity and intragenomic variation are common in beech species,<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Denk-2005" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" /> and their chloroplast genomes are nonspecific with the exception of the Western Eurasian and North American species.<ref name="Denk-2024" />

Fagus is the first diverging lineage in the evolution of the Fagaceae family,<ref name="Grímsson-2016" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which also includes oaks and chestnuts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The oldest fossils that can be assigned to the beech lineage are 81–82 million years old pollen from the Late Cretaceous of Wyoming, United States.<ref name="Grímsson-2016" /> The southern beeches (genus Nothofagus) historically thought closely related to beeches, are treated as members of a separate family, the Nothofagaceae (which remains a member of the order Fagales). They are found throughout the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, as well as Argentina and Chile (principally Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego).

SpeciesEdit

Species treated in Denk et al. (2024) and listed in Plants of the World Online (POWO):<ref name="Denk-2024" />

Image	Name	Subgenus	Status, systematic affinity	Distribution	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Fagus caspica Template:Small – Caspian beech	Fagus	New species described in 2024;<ref name="Denk-2024" /> first-diverging lineage within the Western Eurasian group	Talysch and Elburz Mountains, southeastern Azerbaijan and northern Iran	Populations included in F. sylvatica subsp. orientalis
	Fagus chienii Template:Small	Fagus	Possibly conspecific with F. lucida<ref name="Denk-2003" />	Probably extinct, described from a single location in China (Sichuan). Individuals recently collected at the type locality were morphologically and genetically indistinguishable from F. pashanica.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>	Yes
File:Fagus crenata leave in Mount Mominuka.jpg	Fagus crenata Template:Small – Siebold's beech or Japanese beech	Fagus	Widespread species; complex history connecting it to both the Western Eurasian group and the other East Asian species of subgenus Fagus<ref name="Cardoni-2021" />	Japan; in the mountains of Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu, down to sea-level in southern Hokkaido.	Yes
File:Fagus engleriana - Morris Arboretum - DSC00475.JPG	Fagus engleriana Template:Small – Chinese beech	Englerianae	Widespread species; continental sister species of F. japonica<ref name="Denk-2005" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" /><ref name="Cardoni-2021" />	China; south of the Yellow River	Yes
File:Fagus grandifolia JPG1Ms.jpg	Fagus grandifolia Template:Small – American beech	Fagus	Widespread species; sister species of F. mexicana<ref name="Jiang-2022" /><ref name="Cardoni-2021" />	Eastern North America; from E. Texas and N. Florida, United States, to the St. Lawrence River, Canada at low to mid altitudes	Yes, including Mexican beeches, F. mexicana
File:Fagus hayatae 98412.jpg	Fagus hayatae Template:Small	Fagus	Narrow endemic species; forming a cryptic sister species pair with F. pashanica<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Denk-2024" />	Taiwan; restricted to the mountains of northern Taiwan	Yes
	Fagus hohenackeriana Template:Small – Hohenacker's or Caucasian beech	Fagus	Dominant tree species of the Pontic and Caucasus Mountains; intermediate between F. caspica and F. orientalis.<ref name="Gömöry-2010">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Gömöry-2018">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Kurz-2023">Template:Cite journal</ref> Its genetic heterogeneity<ref name="Denk-2024" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> may be indicative for ongoing speciation processes.	Northeastern Anatolia (Pontic Mountains, Kaçkar Mountains) and Caucasus region (Lesser and Greater Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia, Ciscaucasia; down to sea-level in southwestern Georgia)	No, populations included in F. sylvatica subsp. orientalis
File:Forest in Tanzawa 08.jpg	Fagus japonica Template:Small	Englerianae	Widespread species; insular sister species of F. engleriana<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Denk-2005" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" />	Japan; Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu from sea-level up to c. 1500 m a.s.l.	Yes
	Fagus longipetiolata Template:Small	Fagus	Sym- to parapatric with F. lucida and F. pashanica, and sharing alleles with both species in addition to alleles indicating a sister relationship with the Japanese F. crenata.<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" />	China, south of the Yellow River, into N. Vietnam; in montane areas up to 2400 m a.s.l.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Replaced by F. sinensis
File:Fagus lucida Buk 2020-07-18 01.jpg	Fagus lucida Template:Small	Fagus	Rare species; closest relatives are F. crenata<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Denk-2005" /><ref name="Denk-2003" /> and F. longipetiolata<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" />	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Yes
	Fagus mexicana Template:Small	Fagus	Narrow endemic sister species of F. grandifolia. F. mexicana differs from F. grandifolia by its slender leaves and less-evolved but more polymorphic set of alleles (higher level of heterozygosity)<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" />	Hidalgo, Mexico; at 1400–2000 m a.s.l. as an element of the subtropical montane mesophilic forest"(bosque mesófilo de montaña) superimposing the tropical lowland rainforests.	No, populations included in F. grandifolia
	Fagus multinervis Template:Small	Englerianae	Narrow endemic species, first diverging lineage within subgenus Englerianae<ref name="Cardoni-2021" /><ref name="Jiang-2022" />	South Korea (Ulleungdo)	Yes
File:Fagus orientalis near Fioletovo village, Armenia S-N 04.jpg	Fagus orientalis Template:Small – Oriental beech (in a narrow sense)	Fagus	Sister species of F. sylvatica<ref name="Gömöry-2018" /><ref name="Kurz-2023" />	Southeastern Europe (SE Bulgaria, NE Greece, European Turkey) and adjacent northwestern Asia (NW and N Anatolia)	No, treated as subspecies of F. sylvatica
	Fagus pashanica Template:Small	Fagus	Continental sister species of F. hayatae, with a set of alleles that puts it closer to F. longipetiolata and F. crenata than its insular sister.	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>)	Yes
	Fagus sinensis Template:Small	Fagus	Invalid; the original material included material from two much different species: F. engleriana and F. longipetiolata<ref name="Denk-2024" /><ref name="Denk-2003" />	China (Hubei), Vietnam	Yes, erroneously used as older synonym of F. longipetiolata
File:Fagus sylvatica 019.jpg	Fagus sylvatica Template:Small – European beech	Fagus	Sister species of and closely related to F. orientalis<ref name="Gömöry-2018" /><ref name="Kurz-2023" />	Europe	Yes

Natural and potential hybridsEdit

Image	Name	Parentage	Status	Distribution
	Fagus (×) moesiaca Template:Small	F. sylvatica × F. orientalis	No evidence so far for hybrid origin. All individuals addressed as F. moesiaca included in genetic studies fell within the variation of F. sylvatica.<ref name="Denk-2005" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They may represent a lowland ecotype of F. sylvatica.<ref name="Denk-2024" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Erroneously synonymized by some authors (e.g. POWO) with the Crimean F. × taurica, from which it differs morphologically and genetically.	Southeastern Balkans
	Fagus okamotoi Template:Small	F. crenata × F. japonica ?	Unique phenotype, described from an area in which F. crenata and F. japonica are sympatric. So far, there is no genetic evidence for ongoing gene flow between the two Japanese species, which belong to different subgeneric lineages.	Kanto, eastern Honshu
File:Bukva 2.jpg	Fagus × taurica Template:Small – Crimean beech	F. sylvatica × F. orientalis s.l.	Hybrid status not yet tested by genetic data; according to isoenzyme profiles a less-evolved, relict population of F. sylvatica or intermediate between F. sylvatica and the species complex historically addressed as Oriental beech (F. orientalis in a broad sense)<ref name="Gömöry-2010" />	Crimean peninsula

PhylogenyEdit

A cladogram of 11 beech species is shown below.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Template:Clade

Fossil speciesEdit

Numerous species have been named globally from the fossil record spanning from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene.<ref name="IFPNI-2023">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col

†Fagus aburatoensis Template:Small<ref name="Tanai-1952">Template:Cite journal</ref>
†Fagus alnitifolia Template:Small<ref name="Brown-1937">Template:Cite report</ref>
†Fagus altaensis Template:Small
†Fagus ambigua Template:Small
†Fagus angusta Template:Small
†Fagus antipofii Template:Small
†Fagus aperta Template:Small
†Fagus arduinorum Template:Small
†Fagus aspera Template:Small
†Fagus aspera Template:Small (jr homonym)
†Fagus atlantica Template:Small
†Fagus attenuata Template:Small
†Fagus aurelianii Template:Small
†Fagus australis Template:Small
†Fagus betulifolia Template:Small
†Fagus bonnevillensis Template:Small
†Fagus castaneifolia Template:Small
†Fagus celastrifolia Template:Small
†Fagus ceretana Template:Small
†Fagus chamaephegos Template:Small
†Fagus chankaica Template:Small
†Fagus chiericii Template:Small
†Fagus chinensis Template:Small
†Fagus coalita Template:Small
†Fagus cordifolia Template:Small
†Fagus cretacea Template:Small
†Fagus decurrens Template:Small
†Fagus dentata Template:Small
†Fagus deucalionis Template:Small
†Fagus dubia Template:Small
†Fagus dubia Template:Small (jr homonym)
†Fagus echinata Template:Small
†Fagus eocenica Template:Small
†Fagus etheridgei Template:Small
†Fagus ettingshausenii Template:Small
†Fagus europaea Template:Small
†Fagus evenensis Template:Small
†Fagus faujasii Template:Small
†Fagus feroniae Template:Small
†Fagus florinii Template:Small
†Fagus forumlivii Template:Small
†Fagus friedrichii Template:Small
†Fagus gortanii Template:Small
†Fagus grandifoliiformis Template:Small
†Fagus gussonii Template:Small
†Fagus haidingeri Template:Small
†Fagus herthae Template:Small
†Fagus hitchcockii Template:Small
†Fagus hondoensis Template:Small
†Fagus hookeri Template:Small
†Fagus horrida Template:Small
†Fagus humata Template:Small
†Fagus idahoensis Template:Small
†Fagus inaequalis Template:Small
†Fagus incerta Template:Small
†Fagus integrifolia Template:Small
†Fagus intermedia Template:Small
†Fagus irvajamensis Template:Small
†Fagus japoniciformis Template:Small
†Fagus japonicoides Template:Small
†Fagus jobanensis Template:Small
†Fagus jonesii Template:Small
†Fagus juliae Template:Small
†Fagus kitamiensis Template:Small
†Fagus koraica Template:Small
†Fagus kraeuselii Template:Small
†Fagus kuprianoviae Template:Small
†Fagus lancifolia Template:Small (nomen nudum)
†Fagus langevinii Template:Small<ref name="Manchester-2004">Template:Cite journal</ref>
†Fagus laptoneura Template:Small
†Fagus latissima Template:Small
†Fagus leptoneuron Template:Small
†Fagus macrophylla Template:Small
†Fagus maorica Template:Small
†Fagus marsillii Template:Small
†Fagus menzelii Template:Small
†Fagus microcarpa Template:Small
†Fagus miocenica Template:Small
†Fagus napanensis Template:Small
†Fagus nelsonica Template:Small
†Fagus oblonga Template:Small
†Fagus oblonga Template:Small
†Fagus obscura Template:Small
†Fagus olejnikovii Template:Small
†Fagus orbiculatum Template:Small
†Fagus orientaliformis Template:Small
†Fagus orientalis var fossilis Template:Small
†Fagus orientalis var palibinii Template:Small
†Fagus pacifica Template:Small
†Fagus palaeococcus Template:Small
†Fagus palaeocrenata Template:Small
†Fagus palaeograndifolia Template:Small
†Fagus palaeojaponica Template:Small
†Fagus pittmanii Template:Small
†Fagus pliocaenica Template:Small (jr homonym)
†Fagus pliocenica Template:Small
†Fagus polycladus Template:Small
†Fagus praelucida Template:Small
†Fagus praeninnisiana Template:Small
†Fagus praeulmifolia Template:Small
†Fagus prisca Template:Small
†Fagus pristina Template:Small
†Fagus producta Template:Small
†Fagus protojaponica Template:Small
†Fagus protolongipetiolata Template:Small
†Fagus protonucifera Template:Small
†Fagus pseudoferruginea Template:Small
†Fagus pygmaea Template:Small
†Fagus pyrrhae Template:Small
†Fagus salnikovii Template:Small
†Fagus sanctieugeniensis Template:Small
†Fagus saxonica Template:Small
†Fagus schofieldii Template:Small
†Fagus septembris Template:Small
†Fagus shagiana Template:Small
†Fagus stuxbergii Template:Small
†Fagus subferruginea Template:Small<ref name="Wilf-2005">Template:Cite journal</ref>
†Fagus succinea Template:Small
†Fagus sylvatica var diluviana Template:Small
†Fagus sylvatica var pliocenica Template:Small
†Fagus tenella Template:Small
†Fagus uemurae Template:Small
†Fagus uotanii Template:Small
†Fagus vivianii Template:Small
†Fagus washoensis Template:Small

Template:Div col end Fossil species formerly placed in Fagus include:<ref name="IFPNI-2023"/> Template:Div col

†Alnus paucinervis Template:Small
†Castanea abnormalis Template:Small
†Fagopsis longifolia Template:Small
†Fagopsis undulata Template:Small
†Fagoxylon grandiporosum Template:Small
†Fagus-pollenites parvifossilis Template:Small
†Juglans ginannii Template:Small (new name for F. ginannii)
†Nothofagaphyllites novae-zealandiae Template:Small
†Nothofagus benthamii Template:Small
†Nothofagus dicksonii Template:Small
†Nothofagus lendenfeldii Template:Small
†Nothofagus luehmannii Template:Small
†Nothofagus magelhaenica Template:Small
†Nothofagus maidenii Template:Small
†Nothofagus muelleri Template:Small
†Nothofagus ninnisiana Template:Small
†Nothofagus risdoniana Template:Small
†Nothofagus ulmifolia Template:Small
†Nothofagus wilkinsonii Template:Small
†Trigonobalanus minima Template:Small

Template:Div col end

EtymologyEdit

The name of the tree in Latin, fagus (from whence the generic epithet), is cognate with English "beech" and of Indo-European origin, and played an important role in early debates on the geographical origins of the Indo-European people, the beech argument. Greek φηγός (figós) is from the same root, but the word was transferred to the oak tree (e.g. Iliad 16.767) as a result of the absence of beech trees in southern Greece.<ref>Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden and Boston 2010, pp. 1565–6</ref>

Distribution and habitatEdit

File:Grib skov.jpg

European beech (Fagus sylvatica)

File:Beeches, Ehrenbach.jpg

Beeches in Ehrenbach, Germany

File:Beech with Branches.jpg

North American beech, seen in autumn

File:Fagus engleriana - Morris Arboretum - DSC00475.JPG

Chinese beech (Fagus engleriana)

Britain and IrelandEdit

Fagus sylvatica was a late entrant to Great Britain after the last glaciation, and may have been restricted to basic soils in the south of England. Some suggest that it was introduced by Neolithic tribes who planted the trees for their edible nuts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Large areas of the Chilterns are covered with beech woods, which are habitat to the common bluebell and other flora. The Cwm Clydach National Nature Reserve in southeast Wales was designated for its beech woodlands, which are believed to be on the western edge of their natural range in this steep limestone gorge.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Beech is not native to Ireland; however, it was widely planted in the 18th century and can become a problem shading out the native woodland understory.

Beech is widely planted for hedging and in deciduous woodlands, and mature, regenerating stands occur throughout mainland Britain at elevations below about Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The tallest and longest hedge in the world (according to Guinness World Records) is the Meikleour Beech Hedge in Meikleour, Perth and Kinross, Scotland.

Continental EuropeEdit

Fagus sylvatica is one of the most common hardwood trees in north-central Europe, in France constituting alone about 15% of all nonconifers. The Balkans are also home to the lesser-known oriental beech (F. orientalis) and Crimean beech (F. taurica).

As a naturally growing forest tree, beech marks the important border between the European deciduous forest zone and the northern pine forest zone. This border is important for wildlife and fauna.

In Denmark and Scania at the southernmost peak of the Scandinavian peninsula, southwest of the natural spruce boundary, it is the most common forest tree. It grows naturally in Denmark and southern Norway and Sweden up to about 57–59°N. The most northern known naturally growing (not planted) beech trees are found in a small grove north of Bergen on the west coast of Norway. Near the city of Larvik is the largest naturally occurring beech forest in Norway, Bøkeskogen.

Some research suggests that early agriculture patterns supported the spread of beech in continental Europe. Research has linked the establishment of beech stands in Scandinavia and Germany with cultivation and fire disturbance, i.e. early agricultural practices. Other areas which have a long history of cultivation, Bulgaria for example, do not exhibit this pattern, so how much human activity has influenced the spread of beech trees is as yet unclear.<ref name="Bradshaw-2010">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The primeval beech forests of the Carpathians are also an example of a singular, complete, and comprehensive forest dominated by a single tree species - the beech tree. Forest dynamics here were allowed to proceed without interruption or interference since the last ice age. Nowadays, they are amongst the last pure beech forests in Europe to document the undisturbed postglacial repopulation of the species, which also includes the unbroken existence of typical animals and plants. These virgin beech forests and similar forests across 12 countries in continental Europe were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.<ref name = "unesco">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

North AmericaEdit

The American beech (Fagus grandifolia) occurs across much of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, with a disjunct sister species in Mexico (F. mexicana). It is the only extant (surviving) Fagus species in the Western Hemisphere. Before the Pleistocene Ice Age, it is believed to have spanned the entire width of the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific but now is confined to the east of the Great Plains. F. grandifolia tolerates hotter climates than European species but is not planted much as an ornamental due to slower growth and less resistance to urban pollution. It most commonly occurs as an overstory component in the northern part of its range with sugar maple, transitioning to other forest types further south such as beech-magnolia. American beech is rarely encountered in developed areas except as a remnant of a forest that was cut down for land development.

The dead brown leaves of the American beech remain on the branches until well into the following spring, when the new buds finally push them off.

AsiaEdit

East Asia is home to eight species of Fagus, only one of which (F. crenata) is occasionally planted in Western countries. Smaller than F. sylvatica and F. grandifolia, this beech is one of the most common hardwoods in its native range.

EcologyEdit

Beech grows on a wide range of soil types, acidic or basic, provided they are not waterlogged. The tree canopy casts dense shade and thickens the ground with leaf litter.

In North America, they can form beech-maple climax forests by partnering with the sugar maple.

The beech blight aphid (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) is a common pest of American beech trees. Beeches are also used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera.

Beech bark is extremely thin and scars easily. Since the beech tree has such delicate bark, carvings, such as lovers' initials and other forms of graffiti, remain because the tree is unable to heal itself.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

DiseasesEdit

Beech bark disease is a fungal infection that attacks the American beech through damage caused by scale insects.<ref>"beech." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.</ref> Infection can lead to the death of the tree.<ref>Template:Cite book Credo Reference. Web. 27 September 2012.</ref>

Beech leaf disease is a disease that affects American beeches spread by the newly discovered nematode, Litylenchus crenatae mccannii. This disease was first discovered in Lake County, Ohio, in 2012 and has now spread to over 41 counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2024, the disease has become widespread in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and in portions of coastal New Hampshire and coastal and central Maine.<ref>University of New Hampshire</ref>

CultivationEdit

The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica), widely cultivated in North America as well as its native Europe. Many varieties are in cultivation, notably the weeping beech F. sylvatica 'Pendula', several varieties of copper or purple beech, the fern-leaved beech F. sylvatica 'Asplenifolia', and the tricolour beech F. sylvatica 'Roseomarginata'. The columnar Dawyck beech (F. sylvatica 'Dawyck') occurs in green, gold, and purple forms, named after Dawyck Botanic Garden in the Scottish Borders, one of the four garden sites of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

UsesEdit

File:Eugène Atget - Beech Tree - Google Art Project.jpg

Beech Tree photographed by Eugène Atget, circa 1910–1915

WoodEdit

Beech wood is an excellent firewood, easily split and burning for many hours with bright but calm flames. Slats of beech wood are washed in caustic soda to leach out any flavour or aroma characteristics and are spread around the bottom of fermentation tanks for Budweiser beer. This provides a complex surface on which the yeast can settle, so that it does not pile up, preventing yeast autolysis which would contribute off-flavours to the beer.Template:Citation needed Beech logs are burned to dry the malt used in German smoked beers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Beech is also used to smoke Westphalian ham,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> traditional andouille (an offal sausage) from Normandy,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and some cheeses.

Some drums are made from beech, which has a tone between those of maple and birch, the two most popular drum woods.

The textile modal is a kind of rayon often made wholly from reconstituted cellulose of pulped beech wood.<ref>holistic-interior-designs.com, Modal Fabric Template:Webarchive, retrieved 9 October 2011</ref><ref>uniformreuse.co.uk, Modal data sheet Template:Webarchive, retrieved 9 October 2011</ref><ref>fabricstockexchange.com, Modal Template:Webarchive (dictionary entry), retrieved 9 October 2011</ref>

The European species Fagus sylvatica yields a tough, utility timber. It weighs about 720 kg per cubic metre and is widely used for furniture construction, flooring, and engineering purposes, in plywood and household items, but rarely as a decorative wood. The timber can be used to build chalets, houses, and log cabins.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Beech wood is used for the stocks of military rifles when traditionally preferred woods such as walnut are scarce or unavailable or as a lower-cost alternative.<ref name="Walter-2006">Template:Cite book</ref>

FoodEdit

The edible fruit of the beech tree,<ref name="Lyle-2010" /> known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, with a bitter, astringent, or in some cases, mild and nut-like taste. According to the Roman statesman Pliny the Elder in his work Natural History, beechnut was eaten by the people of Chios when the town was besieged, writing of the fruit: "that of the beech is the sweetest of all; so much so, that, according to Cornelius Alexander, the people of the city of Chios, when besieged, supported themselves wholly on mast".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They can also be roasted and pulverized into an adequate coffee substitute.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The leaves can be steeped in liquor to give a light green/yellow liqueur.

BooksEdit

File:Venus with a Mirror (study).jpg

Painting on beech wood - 1511

In antiquity, the bark of the beech tree was used by Indo-European people for writing-related purposes, especially in a religious context.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Beech wood tablets were a common writing material in Germanic societies before the development of paper. The Old English bōc<ref>A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Second Edition (1916), Blōtan-Boldwela, John Richard Clark Hall</ref> has the primary sense of "beech" but also a secondary sense of "book", and it is from bōc that the modern word derives.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In modern German, the word for "book" is Buch, with Buche meaning "beech tree". In modern Dutch, the word for "book" is boek, with beuk meaning "beech tree". In Swedish, these words are the same, bok meaning both "beech tree" and "book". There is a similar relationship in some Slavic languages. In Russian and Bulgarian, the word for beech is бук (buk), while that for "letter" (as in a letter of the alphabet) is буква (bukva), while Serbo-Croatian and Slovene use "bukva" to refer to the tree.

OtherEdit

The pigment bistre was made from beech wood soot. Beech litter raking as a replacement for straw in animal husbandry was an old non-timber practice in forest management that once occurred in parts of Switzerland in the 17th century.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Beech has been listed as one of the 38 plants whose flowers are used to prepare Bach flower remedies.<ref name="Vohra-2004">Template:Cite book</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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