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"Beech (Fagus) is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe and North America. The leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5-15 cm long and 4-10 cm broad. The flowers are small single-sex, wind-pollinated catkins, produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The bark is smooth and light gray. The fruit is a small, sharply 3-angled nut 10-15 mm long, borne in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5-2.5 cm long, known as cupules. The nuts are edible, though bitter with a high tannin content, and are called beechmast. Beech grows on a wide range of soil types, acid or basic, provided they are not waterlogged. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground with dense leaf litter, and the ground flora beneath may be sparse. Beech was a late entrant to Great Britain after the last glaciation, and may have been restricted to basic soils in the south of England. 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. Climate change is also having a negative impact on the beech in the south. This has led to a campaign by Friends of the Rusland Beeches and South Lakeland Friends of the Earth launched in 2007 to reclassify the beech as native in Cumbria. The campaign is backed by Tim Farron MP who has tabled a motion regarding the status of beech in Cumbria. Today, beech is widely planted for hedging and in deciduous woodlands, and mature, regenerating stands occur throughout mainland Britain below about 650 m. The southern beeches Nothofagus previously thought closely related to beeches, are now treated as members of a separate family, Nothofagaceae. They are found in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia and South America. The beech blight aphid (Grylloprociphilus imbricator) is a common pest of beech trees. Beeches are also used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera (see list of Lepidoptera that feed on beeches)." - wikipedia | USES |
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"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 strikingly columnar Dawyck beech occurs in green, gold and purple forms, named after Dawyck Garden in the Scottish Borders, one of the four garden sites of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The European species, Fagus sylvatica, yields a utility timber that is tough but dimensionally unstable. It is widely used for furniture framing and carcass construction, flooring and engineering purposes, in plywood and in household items like plates, but rarely as a decorative timber. Beech wood is an excellent firewood, easily split and burning for many hours with bright but calm flames. Chips of beech wood are used in the brewing of Budweiser beer as a fining agent. Beech logs are burned to dry the malts used in some German smoked beers, to give the beers their typical flavor. Beech is also used to smoke some cheeses. Beech wood is excellent for furnitures as well. Also, beech pulp is used as the basis for manufacturing a textile fibre known as Modal. The fruit of the beech, also called "Beechnuts", are found in the small burrs that drop from tree in Autumn. They are small and triangular, are edible, have a sweet taste and are highly nutritious. (~ 20% protein and also ~ 20% oil content). However, they do contain organic substances which are slightly toxic (it has been reported that eating approx. 50 nuts may make you ill) so that they should not be eaten in larger quantities.[citation needed] The oil pressed from them does not have this effect any more. It was in common use in Europe in times of abundant labor but scarce food sources, such as in Germany in the years immediately after World War II; people would go into the woods and collect beechnuts, then swap them for oil at small private or community-owned oil mills; the mill would keep and sell a certain percentage to cover its operating costs. As collecting beechnuts is time-consuming work, use of the oil dropped sharply when mass-produced oils became more available again. In Eastern Canada and areas of Great Britain there is a syrup made from Beech trees." - wikipedia | EUROPEAN BEECH |
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"The European Beech or Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica) is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. The natural range extends from southern Sweden (with some isolated locations in southern Norway) to central Italy, west to France, northern Portugal, and central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with the Oriental Beech (F. orientalis), which replaces it further east. In the Balkans, it shows some hybridisation with Oriental Beech; these hybrid trees are named Fagus x taurica. In the southern part of its range around the Mediterranean, it grows only in mountain forests, at 600-1,800 m altitude. Although often regarded as native in southern England, recent evidence suggests that it did not arrive in England until about 4,000 BC, 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 is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to 49 m tall [2] and 3m trunk diameter, though more typically 25-35 m tall and up to 1.5 m trunk diameter. It has a typical lifespan of 150 to 200 years, though sometimes up to 300 years. The appearance varies according to its habitat; in forest conditions, it tends to have a long, slender light-gray trunk with a narrow crown and erect branches, in isolation with good side light the trunk is short with a large and widely spreading crown with very long branches. The leaves are alternate, simple, and entire or with a slightly crenate margin, 5-10 cm long and 3-7 cm broad, 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. The buds are long and slender, 15-30 mm long and 2-3 mm thick, but thicker (to 4-5 mm) where the buds include flower buds. The European Beech starts to flower when it is between 30-80 years old. The flowers are small catkins which appear shortly after the leaves in spring. The seeds, called beechnuts, are small triangular nuts 15-20 mm long and 7-10 mm 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. The nuts are an important food for birds, rodents and in the past also people, although they are no longer eaten by man. Slightly toxic to man if eaten in large quantities due to the tannins they contain, the nuts were nonetheless pressed to obtain an oil in 19th century England that was used for cooking and in lamps. They were also ground to make flour, which could be eaten after the tannins were leached out by soaking." - wikipedia |
| HABITAT OF THE EUROPEAN BEECH |
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"Climate and temperatures vary, though humidity needs to be constant. Little is required of the soil so long as it is well drained. Though not demanding of its soil type, the European Beech has several significant requirements: a humid atmosphere (precipitation well distributed throughout the year and frequent fogs) and well drained soil (it can not handle excessive stagnant water). 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. A beech forest is very dark and few species of plant are able to survive there, where the sun barely reaches the ground. 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. Under oaks with sparse leaf cover it will quickly surpass them in height and, due to the beech's dense foliage, the oaks will die from lack of sunlight. Foresters may assure the oaks' survival by cutting young beeches with a billhook 10 cm off the ground, which can produce magnificent bonsai. The root system is shallow, even superficial, with large roots spreading out in all directions. The role of the mycorrhizae in the growth of the European Beech is important. Without mycorrhizae, it often does not develop well. The mycorrhizae provide chemical protection of the roots against bacteria and enhanced uptake of mineral nutrients from the soil. The following fungi genera form mycorrhizae with European Beech: Porcini, Milk caps, Amanita, Cantharellus, and Hebeloma. In the natural forest of southern Britain, beech is dominant over oak and elm south of a line from about north Suffolk across to Cardigan. Beyond this the oak is the dominant forest tree and this gives way to other trees north of Yorkshire. In Ireland, the beech is not native. One of the most beautiful European Beech forests called Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud) is found in the southeast of Brussels, Belgium. It is a dominant tree species in France and constitutes about 10% of French forests." - wikipedia | PHENOLOGY OF THE EUROPEAN BEECH |
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"Spring leaf budding by the European Beech 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 (within a few days). It is more precise in the north of its range than the south, and at 600 m than at sea level. 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." - wikipedia | USES OF THE EUROPEAN BEECH |
"European Beech is a very popular ornamental tree in parks and large gardens, not only in Europe, but also in North America and New Zealand. Since the early nineteenth century there have been a large number of ornamental cultivars of European Beech made by horticultural selection, often repeatedly; they include:
- wikipedia | AMERICAN BEECH TREE |
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"The American Beech tree grows in the southern and eastern parts of the United States. It grows in deciduous forests all over Maine and northern Massachusetts. It grows best in deep, rich, moist, well-drained soils.
The American beech is a tall and wide tree. The mature tree size is anywhere from 90 to 100 feet tall, and spreads 50 to 70 feet. The bark that grows on the tree is very smooth, pale and gray. The growth buds have a yellow tinge, looking a little like a bullet. The leaves are bright green and are about three inches in length. They start wide, and then get smaller and smaller, until they come to a point. The leaves have distinct, strong veins and toothed edges. The American Beech tree does not like city living, probably because of the carbon monoxide. The American Beech tree has a shallow root system and likes bottom land, and upland soil. There are two reasons why it is hard to grow anything beneath the tree. The first is because the leaves that grow on the tree block the sunlight and keep the ground constantly in shade. The second reason is because much of the root system grows all over the ground's surface, and uses any moisture that may reach the ground. There are many different uses for the American Beech tree. This is a list of some of the things this tree is used for: furniture such as cabinets, benches, stools and tables. The American Beech tree produces a lot of paper. The animals that feed on the nuts that grow on this tree are: the opossum, black bears, white-tailed deer, rabbits, ruffed grouse, red and gray squirrels, flying foxes, porcupines and others. The American Beech tree helps people because the nuts that fall off the tree can be harvested and sold for food. The american Beech's population is healthy throughout its range. " - wikipedia | FANLISTINGS |
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A fanlisting is simply an online listing of fans of a subject, that is created by an individual fan and open for fans from around the world to join. This has been approved byThefanlistings.org, a fanlisting network with over thousands of fanlistings around the world. | CREDIT |
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