Beech

Beech (Fagus) is a genus of deciduous trees in the family

Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Beech

Contents
Nomenclature
Classification
Species
Appearance European beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Habitat Scientific classification

Diseases Kingdom: Plantae
Distribution Clade: Tracheophytes
Britain and Ireland
Clade: Angiosperms
Continental Europe
North America Clade: Eudicots
Asia Clade: Rosids
Uses Order: Fagales
As an ornamental
Family: Fagaceae
See also
Subfamily: Fagoideae
References
K.Koch
External links
Genus: Fagus
L.
Nomenclature
Species
The name of the tree (Latin fagus, whence the species name;
cognate with English "beech") is of Indo-European origin, and See text
played an important role in early debates on the geographical
origins of the Indo-European people. Greek φηγός 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 Greece.[1]

Classification
Recent classification systems of the genus recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, Engleriana
and Fagus.[2][3] The Engleriana subgenus is found only in East Asia, and is notably distinct from the Fagus
subgenus in that these beeches are low-branching trees, often made up of several major trunks with
yellowish bark. Further differentiating characteristics include the whitish bloom on the underside of the
leaves, the visible tertiary leaf veins, and a long, smooth cupule-peduncle. Fagus japonica, Fagus
engleriana, and the species F. okamotoi, proposed by the botanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, comprise this
subgenus.[3] The better known Fagus subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and
smooth silver-grey bark.

This group includes Fagus sylvatica, Fagus grandifolia, Fagus crenata, Fagus lucida, Fagus longipetiolata,
and Fagus hayatae.[3] The classification of the European beech, Fagus sylvatica is complex, with a variety
of different names proposed for different species and subspecies within this region (for example Fagus
taurica, Fagus orientalis, and Fagus moesica[4]). Research suggests that beeches in Eurasia differentiated
fairly late in evolutionary history, during the Miocene. The populations in this area represent a range of often
overlapping morphotypes, though genetic analysis does not clearly support separate species.[5]

Within its family, the Fagaceae, recent research has suggested that Fagus is the evolutionarily most basal
group.[6] The southern beeches (genus Nothofagus) previously thought closely related to beeches, are now
treated as members of a separate family, the Nothofagaceae (which remains a member of the order Fagales).
They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Argentina, and Chile (principally
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego).

Species
Fagus chienii W.C.Cheng
Fagus crenata Blume – Siebold's beech
Fagus engleriana Seemen ex Diels – Chinese beech
Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. – North American beech
Fagus hayatae Palib. ex Hayata – Taiwan beech
Fagus japonica Maxim. Japanese beech, Japanese blue beech
Fagus longipetiolata Seemen – South Chinese beech
Fagus lucida Rehder & E.H.Wilson – shining beech
Fagus orientalis Lipsky – Oriental beech
Fagus sylvatica L. – European beech
Fagus × taurica Popl. – Crimean beech
†Fagus subferruginea Wilf et al. 2005[7]

Appearance
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 5–15 cm (2.0–5.9 in) long and 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) broad. 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 bark is smooth and light grey. The fruit is a small, sharply three-angled nut 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in)
long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5–2.5 cm (0.59–0.98 in) 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.[3] The nuts are edible, though bitter (though not
nearly as bitter as acorns) with a high tannin content, and are called beechnuts or beechmast.

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

In North America, they often 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.[8]

Diseases
Beech bark disease is a fungal infection that attacks the American beech through damage caused by scale
insects.[9] Infection can lead to the death of the tree.[10]

Distribution

Britain and Ireland

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Beech is not native to Ireland; however, it was widely planted from the 18th
century, and can become a problem shading out the native woodland European beech with
understory. The Friends of the Irish Environment say that the best policy is unusual aerial roots in a wet
to remove young, naturally regenerating beech, while retaining veteran Scottish glen: The tree also
sports an epiphytic fern.
specimens with biodiversity value.[14]

A campaign by Friends of the Rusland Beeches[15] and South Lakeland

Friends of the Earth[16] launched in 2007 to reclassify the beech as native in Cumbria.[17] The campaign is
backed by Tim Farron, MP, who tabled a motion on 3 December 2007 regarding the status of beech in
Cumbria.[18]

Today, beech is widely planted for hedging and in deciduous woodlands, and mature, regenerating stands
occur throughout mainland Britain below about 650 m (2,130 ft).[19] 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 Europe
 The common European
beech (Fagus sylvatica)
grows naturally in Denmark
and southern Norway and
Sweden up to about the 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
Beechnuts in autumn
of Norway with the North
Sea nearby. Near the city of
European beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Larvik is the largest naturally
occurring beech forest in
Norway. Planted beeches are
grown much farther north along the Norwegian coast.

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.
Beech forest on Mount Olympus in
Other areas which have a long history of cultivation, Bulgaria for
Greece
example, do not exhibit this pattern, so how much human activity
has influenced the spread of beech trees is as yet unclear.[20]

As a naturally growing forest tree, it marks the important border between the
European deciduous forest zone and the northern pine forest zone. This
border is important for wildlife and fauna, and is a sharp line along the
Swedish western coast, which gets broader toward the south. In Denmark
and Scania, at the southernmost peak of the Scandinavian peninsula, south-
west of the natural spruce boundary, it is the most common forest tree. In
Norway, the beech migration was very recent, and the species has not
reached its distribution potential. Thus, the occurrence of oak in Norway is
used as an indicator of the border between the temperate deciduous forest
and the boreal spruce – pine forest.

Fagus sylvatica is one of the most common hardwood trees in north central
Europe, in France alone comprising about 15% of all nonconifers. Beech Tree photographed
by Eugène Atget, circa
The primeval beech forests of the Carpathians are also an example of a 1910–1915
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.

North America

The American beech (Fagus grandifolia) occurs across much of the eastern United States and southeastern
Canada, with a disjunct population in Mexico. It is the only Fagus species in the Western Hemisphere. Prior
to 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 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 unless
as a remnant of a forest that was cut down for land development.

Asia

East Asia is home to five species of

Fagus, only one of which (F.
crenata) is occasionally planted in
Western countries. Smaller than F. North American beech
sylvatica and F. grandifolia, (Fagus grandifolia), seen in
Japanese beech is one of the most autumn
common hardwoods in its native
range.
Chinese beech (Fagus engleriana)

Uses
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 flavor 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-
flavors to the beer. Beech logs are burned to dry the malt used in some German smoked beers, giving the
beers their typical flavor. Beech is also used to smoke Westphalian ham,[21] various sausages,[22] 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.[23][24][25]

The European species Fagus sylvatica yields a utility timber that is tough but dimensionally unstable. It
weighs about 720 kg per cubic metre and is widely used for furniture framing and carcase construction,
flooring and engineering purposes, in plywood and in household items like plates, but rarely as a decorative
wood. The timber can be used to build chalets, houses, and log cabins.

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.[26]

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 in some cases, mild and
nut-like taste. They have a high enough fat content that they can be pressed for edible oil. Fresh from the
tree, beech leaves in spring are a fine salad vegetable, as sweet as a mild cabbage, though much softer in
texture.[27] The young leaves can be steeped in gin for several weeks, the liquor strained off and sweetened
to give a light green/yellow liqueur called beech leaf noyau. As Pliny the Elder noted it in Natural History, it
was beechnut that saved the people of Chios from starvation when the town was besieged. The Roman
natural philosopher wrote: "(...) there are considerable modifications in the flavour of their 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".[28]

In antiquity, the barks of beech tree were used by Indo-European people for writing-related purposes,
especially in religious context.[29] Beech wood tablets were a common writing material in Germanic
societies before the development of paper. The Old English bōc[30] and Old Norse bók[31] both have the
primary sense of "beech" but also a secondary sense of "book", and it is from bōc that the modern word
derives.[32] 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". Similarly, 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).

The pigment bistre was made from beech wood soot.

Beech litter raking as a replacement for straw in husbandry is an old nontimber practice in forest
management that has been widespread in Europe since the 17th century.[33][34][35][36] Beech has been listed
as one of the 38 plants whose flowers are used to prepare Bach flower remedies.[37]

As an ornamental

The beech most commonly grown as an ornamental tree is the European beech (Fagus sylvatica), widely
cultivated in North America and 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 strikingly 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. Europe is also home
to the lesser-known Oriental beech (F. orientalis) and Crimean beech (F. taurica).

See also
Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe
English Lowlands beech forests
Sylvatica ecology cycle 'Sylvatic' means 'occurring in or affecting woodland'
The Weeping Beech
Beech leaf disease

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External links
"WCSP" (http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families – Fagus.
 Eichhorn, Markus (October 2010). "The Beech Tree" (http://www.test-tube.org.uk/trees/video_b
eech.htm). Test Tube. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
Traditional and Modern Use of Beech (https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/beech-fagus-sylvatica)

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