BEECH

''Not to be confused with Birch''
'Beech' (''Fagus'') is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. The leaves 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 a 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 can be called beechmast.
The 'southern beeches' ''Nothofagus'' previously thought closely related to beeches, are now treated in 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 which feed on Beeches.

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Uses

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Uses

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. The European species yields a widely used timber, an easy-to-work utility wood.
Chips of beech wood are used in the brewing of Budweiser beer to impart a taste similar to that of wood-barrel aging. Beech logs are burned to dry the malts used in German smoked beers, to give the beers their typical flavor.
Also, beech pulp is used as the basis for manufacturing a textile fibre known as Modal.

External links

★ Flora of China - ''Fagus''

★ Flora of North America - ''Fagus''

★ Kew Checklist - ''Fagus''