Beech

Fagus sylvatica

Beech is a native British tree growing to over 30m with a smooth grey bark. In woodland they often have no low branches though solitary trees will grow to a complete and balanced form with branches offering leaves for all available light. Leaf buds are long and slender on opposite spurs. Flowers form soon after the leaves appear with male and female on the same tree. The females mature a few days before the males to ensure cross pollination from a neighboring tree. They are seen as a reddish crown of bristly ‘mast’ which hardens to protect the nut. The male flowers hang beneath the branch on slender stalks like clustering earrings. They swing in the wind and so release pollen. The copper beech and weeping beech are both ornamental derivatives of F. sylvatica and they are not the true form.