Beech

Common beech Fagus sylvatica

Description
The common Beech is native to southern England and its natural range extends southwards through Europe to the Middle East. Its botanical name Fagus derives from a Greek word meaning ‘edible’ (nuts or ‘mast’) and sylvatica from the Latin ‘silva’ meaning a wood.

The soft green of newly emerged beech leaves is a sure sign that Spring is here. On smaller trees, the dry brown autumn leaves from the previous year will remain firmly attached to the branches right through the winter until pushed off by new Spring growth. For this reason a Beech hedge make a good screen all year long, provided they are kept regularly pruned to restrain their size; the taller they grow, the less the autumn leaf retention.

Situation
Being native, the Beech can be found throughout the Forest, in both Inclosure, roadside and garden settings. Trees grow relatively fast and have been measured to heights of 40 metres and can live for up to 250 years. In woodland settings, little else grows beneath their canopies, giving easy access for walking because of the scant ground cover. In maturity, they are prone to shed large branches even on calm days in the summer months.

Uses:
Beech timber has been used in furniture making for centuries and can be easily bent by steaming to make decorative shapes. Beechwood and leaves have also been traditionally used for building material and animal fodder. Many old beeches have been regularly pollarded (all the branches cut off to leave a bare trunk about 3 to 4 m tall) every few years. Typical examples of pollards can be seen in the Forest where a tree has a multitude of large branches extending from the single trunk.

Wildlife
Nuts are attractive to birds, deer and badgers.

The Future
The poor condition of some European beech woods are considered by a number of tree researchers to be a reaction to global climate changes, whilst others argue that poor development may be more of an indicator of the tree having reached its maximum northern range.