Beech

Beech - Fagus sylvatica

The common name comes from the Norse buche or bok which also means book. Thin sheets of beech wood were used before paper was perfected. Early book covers were also made of wood.

The scientific or Latin name Fagus derives from the Greek phagein, meaning 'to eat' (the nuts are edible). Sylvatica is a reference to woodland.

Woodland beech is a straight lofty tree, but in open country it produces a broadly spreading head of branches often on a short stem.

The winter buds, on fine zigzag shoots, are spindle shaped and sharply pointed. Their golden-brown gives distant beech woods a distinctive colour.

The untoothed pointed oval leaves have 5-9 parallel veins. They emerge gossamer fringed in late May but soon become deep green as the fringe is cast off.

Little else will grow under the dense shade cast by beech trees in full leaf.

Numerous male and female flowers appear with the leaves. The hanging bunches of male flowers quickly fall and litter the ground with pale brown confetti that blows in the wind. Female ones stay on the tree until autumn and develop into spiked woody husks each containing a pair of triangular glossy-brown nuts.

Autumn foliage colours are golden-yellow and warm brown. Young trees, and juvenile shoots encouraged by summer clipping, retain dry dead leaves all winter so beech is popular for garden hedging.

There are about 10 species world wide. Beech is closely related to oak and chestnut.

European beech ranges across southern Scandinavia down to central Spain, Corsica, Sicily and Greece and eastwards to western Russia and Crimea. It is probably native to southern England and Wales although some authorities, including Julius Caesar, believe it is not native to Britain at all.

On favourable UK sites, even on chalk beech grows rapidly. Trees over 40 metres tall have been recorded in England and Ireland. The best measured girth exceeds 8.9m.

Beech timber is ideal for furniture. Steam treated strips of it become pliable enough to be bent double for chair backs. It does not smell or taste so is suitable for children's toys or in direct contact with food.

Many of the famous Chiltern beechwoods were planted to provide material for the furniture industry centred on High Wycombe.

Healthy timber is pinkish-brown with small darker flecks. Over mature wood infected by fungi is also prized. Called 'dozed beech' it exhibits patches of orange, brown and creamy white.

Beech trees are relatively short lived, seldom lasting over 250 years. Large specimens often become top heavy and fall over. Stem and branch failure may occur very rapidly in old age.

In the past, beech trees were pollarded - their branches cut off at about 4m above ground to provide wood and forage - which prolongs their life. The ancient pollards at Burnham Beeches or Epping Forest are a classic example.

Global warming is predicted to have a profound effect on beech trees in southern England.

Grey squirrels often strip bark from beech.