Tree Highlight: American beech
American beech
Fagus grandifolia (Family Fagaceae)
American beech canopy, showing its spread of smooth leaves and bark
The basics
American beech (Fagus grandifolia) is found in eastern North America from New York to southern Georgia, mainly in upland woods, parks, and gardens. American beeches are shade tolerant trees that live up to 200 years, can grow 60-80 feet tall, have smooth “papery” leaves, and produce prickly husks containing 1 or 2 triangular-shaped nuts measuring ½ to 1 inch in the fall.
Did you know?
- American beech has silver-gray bark that resembles an elephant's skin!
- One of the largest American beeches was found in Michigan and it is 180 ft tall!
- American beeches don’t start producing nuts until they are 40 years old.
- American beech is threatened Beech Bark Disease, a fungus that is carried by an exotic scale insect. The beech scale insect colonizes beech bark in rough areas, and their feeding activity allows the fungus to take hold, weakening and eventually killing the tree.
American beech has smooth, grey bark
Blue jays store beech nuts in the ground for winter, and those that don't get eaten grow into new beech trees!
Wildlife
- Many insects love American beech. Caterpillars and aphids use its foliage, and weevils bore into the nuts.
- Black bears often climb beech trees to get nuts, a vital source of food in the fall.
- Blue jays gather nuts and drop them to the ground to be stored for winter. The nuts that don’t get eaten grow into new beech trees.
Uses
- Beech wood is hard, strong, and heavy, and is used for furniture, flooring, containers, handles, and more.
- When prepared properly to reduce their toxicity, beech nuts are a tasty snack.
- Beech bark has been used for medicinal purposes. In the past, the Cherokee chewed beechnuts to expel intestinal worms as beech nuts are mildly toxic.
American beech produces nuts in the fall
Benefits
Over a 20-year period, a healthy American beech with a diameter of 25 inches will offset 8,610 car miles worth of CO2, absorb enough stormwater to fill 2,314 bathtubs, and remove an amount of pollution from the air – in gaseous and particulate form – equivalent in weight to 181 smartphones! Learn more at: https://mytree.itreetools.org/
Beech Tree of the Week video
By University of Kentucky Forestry and Natural Resources Extension.
Click to watchContact us: ufi@uky.edu
Images sourced from forestyimages.org
