Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

American Beech is a large North American native deciduous tree rowing 60 to 80 feet high (but some will reach 120 feet) with a straight trunk and with a rounded crown of long spreading horizontal branches. Low branches are maintained and the canopy provides dense shade.

The bark is light gray, smooth and thin on the trunk and all branches and on old trees is said to resemble elephant skin.

Twigs are slender, somewhat zigzag, brown to reddish-brown in color with long, thin reddish-brown terminal buds that are covered with long pointed overlapping scales. Lateral buds diverge sharply from the twig as they grow. Young twigs have lighter colored lenticels and prominent ring-like bud scale scars at the end of the prior years growth.

The leaves are alternate, 2-1/2 to 5-1/2 inches long, elliptical to ovate with a long pointed tip, with many pairs of lateral veins, each lateral vein ending in a sharp tooth. Veins are sunken on the upper surface and appear as ribs on the underside where there can be some fairly long fine white hair along the mid-rib. The upper surface color is a shiny green, appearing almost waxy. Leaf bases are sub-cordate to tapering with a very short stalk that has whitish hairs. Fall color is yellow to coppery brown. Young trees hold some leaves over winter.

Flowers: American Beech is monoecious, that is, the male and female flowers are separate on the same plant. The male flowers appear in globose 3/4 to 1 inch diameter yellowish heads hanging on 1 to 3 inch long stalks. These flowers have sepals that are united, 6+ stamens with long filaments. The female flowers occur in clusters of two to four on a short spike. These have yellowish-green coloration, distinct sepals and 3 carpels and styles. They are surrounded by reddish bracts forming a bur-like structure

Seed: Fertile flowers produce a cup-like capsule with the spiny bracts on the outside. Brown to reddish-brown at maturity, it then opens to reveal triangular, ridged, brown nuts that are sweet and edible. These are paired in the husk, rarely there may be 3. Beech trees require around 40 years to produce a decent crop of seeds. Seed matures in the first season.

Habitat: American Beech is a forest tree that grows in well drained sandy, loamy or clayey soils, in either full or partial sun. It has moderate drought tolerance. It grows from a broad and shallow root system and resists transplanting. Suckering can occur from the shallow root system. Due to the low spreading branches and dense canopy it should be a background tree where it has lots of room. Trees can be affected by Beech scale which in-turn invites a fungus that invades the area and kills the bark. Control of scale reduces the problem.

Names: The genus name Fagus, is the Latin name for the Beech. There is a European and American species. The species name, grandifolia, means 'with large leaves'. The author name for the plant description, ‘Ehrh.‘ refers to Jokob Friedrich Ehrhart (1742-1795), German botanist, pupil of Linnaeus, director of the Botanical Garden of Hannover and the first author to use subspecies in botanical literature.

Comparison: This species is similar to the European Beech and to the American Chestnut.