Beech - Fagus sylvatica

Fagus sylvatica: Beech, European beech, common beech
Large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 50 m (160 ft) tall and 3 m (9.8 ft) trunk diameter.
Typical lifespan of 150 to 200 years, sometimes 300 years.
30 years to attain full maturity (compare 40 for American beech). Form depends on the location: in forest areas, F. sylvatica grows to over 30 m (100 ft), with branches being high up on the trunk. In open locations, it will become much shorter (typically 15-24 m (50-80 ft)) and more massive (compare images).
Leaves alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, with 6-7 veins on each side of the leaf (7-10 veins in Fagus orientalis). When crenate, there is one point at each vein tip, never any points between the veins.
Buds are long and slender, thicker where the buds include flower buds. Spring leaf budding is triggered by a combination of day length and temperature. Bud break each year is from the middle of April to the beginning of May, often with remarkable precision.
The leaves of beech are often not abscissed (shed) in the autumn (remaining on the tree until the spring) in a process 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.
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. F. sylvatica male flowers are borne in the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order (beeches, chestnuts, oaks, walnuts, hickories, birches, and hornbeams). The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts, 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 (mast years), though rarely for two years in a row.
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 after the English Channel formed after the ice ages; it could have been an early introduction by Stone age man, who used the nuts for food.
It prefers moderately fertile ground, calcified or lightly acidic, therefore it is found more often on the side of a hill than at the bottom of a clayey basin. It tolerates rigorous winter cold, but is sensitive to spring frost.
Young beeches prefer some shade and may grow poorly in full sunlight. In a clear-cut forest a European beech will germinate and then die of excessive dryness. A beech forest is very dark and few other species of plant are able to survive there.
In the woodlands of southern Britain, beech is dominant over oak and elm south of a line from about north Suffolk across to Cardigan. Oak are the dominant forest trees north of this line.
Beech is a dominant tree species in France and constitutes about 10% of French forests. The largest virgin forest made of beech trees (5,012 ha (12,380 acres) in one forest body) is located in the Semenic National Park (Romania).
The European beech invests significantly in summer and autumn for the following spring. Conditions in summer, particularly good rainfall, determine the number of leaves included in the buds. In autumn, the tree builds the reserves that will sustain it into spring. Given good conditions, a bud can produce a shoot with up to ten or more leaves. The terminal bud emits a hormonal substance in the spring that halts the development of additional buds. This tendency, though very strong at the beginning of their existence, becomes weaker in older trees.
It is only after the budding that root growth of the year begins. The first roots to appear are very thin (with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm). Later, after a wave of above ground growth, thicker roots grow in a steady fashion.
The wood has a fine, short grain, making it easy to work, soak, dye, varnish and glue. It has an excellent finish and is resistant to compression and splitting. It is particularly well suited for minor carpentry, particularly furniture. The wood is hard, but too weak for heavy structural support. Its hardness make it ideal for wooden mallets and workbench tops. The wood rots easily if it is not protected by a tar based on a distillate of its own bark.
Common beech is also considered one of the best firewoods for fireplaces.
Other uses include smoke flavouring.
The nuts are an important food for birds, rodents and in the past also humans. Slightly toxic to humans if eaten in large quantities due to the tannins they contain, the nuts yielded an oil in 19th century England (used for cooking and lamps). Leached of tannins, they were ground to make flour.
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