American beech

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American beech
American beech (Fagus grandifolia)

American beech ( Fagus grandifolia )

Systematics
Eurosiden I
Order : Beech-like (Fagales)
Family : Beech family (Fagaceae)
Subfamily : Fagoideae
Genre : Beech ( Fagus )
Type : American beech
Scientific name
Fagus grandifolia
Honor

The American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ) is a medium-sized deciduous tree belonging to the beech genus . It is the only species of beech that occurs naturally in North America.

description

The American beech (engl. American beech ) reaches a height of 20 to 30 meters to 35 meters in rare cases. The bark is smooth and gray. The buds are brown and shiny. The leaves are 5 to 12 inches long and 2.5 to 7.5 inches wide, they are oblong, ovate and pointed. The base is broadly wedge-shaped to weakly heart-shaped and often asymmetrical. The edge is toothed and 9 to 15 pairs of nerves are formed. The stem becomes 3 to 8 millimeters long. The upper side of the leaf is glossy blue-green, the underside is lighter than the upper side. In autumn the leaves turn golden yellow to leather brown. As fruits are nuts formed in a fruit cup sits with thin, straight or curved bristles. The fruit cups are 15 to 20, in rare cases up to 25 millimeters, and are brown to red-brown in color. They open when ripe and release the 15 to 20 millimeter long and 10 to 18 millimeter wide nuts. The American beech often reproduces by brood .

  • leaves

  • Leaf and fruit cup

Distribution and location requirements

Natural range

The distribution area of ​​the American beech extends from eastern Canada through the northeast and southeast of the United States to Florida and the southern Prairie States . They are also found in some areas in northern Mexico. It grows in species-rich forests and prefers fresh to moist, acidic to neutral, sandy-humic and loamy-humic soils. It is usually frost hardy and thrives in sunny to partially shaded locations. It grows in the north of the distribution area at altitudes up to 900 meters, in the southern Appalachians up to 1800 meters. It occurs in pure stands or mixed stands, often with the sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ), with the yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis ), the American linden ( Tilia americana ), various oaks ( Quercus sp. ) And hickory species ( Carya ), with the Weymouth pine ( Pinus strobus ) and the American red spruce ( Picea rubens ).

Systematics

Autumn colors

The American beech is a species of the beech ( Fagus ) genus . There it is assigned to the subgenus Fagus . There are two subspecies:

  • Fagus grandifolia subsp. grandifolia : It occurs in Canada and the United States.
  • Fagus grandifolia subsp. mexicana (Martínez) AEMurray : It occurs in the Mexican states from Tamaulipas to Hidalgo and Puebla .

Synonyms of the species are Fagus americana (Pers.) Sweet and Fagus ferruginea Aiton, the subspecies Fagus grandifolia subsp. mexicana is rarely seen as a separate species, Fagus mexicana Martínez .

use

The American beech is often used for logging, it is sometimes used as an ornamental plant due to its remarkable autumn color . In Europe it is occasionally found in parks.

proof

literature

  • Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , p. 295.
  • Gregor Aas (adaptation): Lexicon of tree and shrub species . The standard work of forest botany; Morphology, pathology, ecology and systematics of important tree and shrub species. Ed .: Peter Schütt . Nikol, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 3-933203-53-8 , pp. 165–166 (excerpt from the work: Lexikon der Forstbotanik . Ecomed, Landberg am Lech 1992).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Roloff et al .: Flora der Gehölze , p. 295
  2. ↑ a b c d Schütt et al .: Lexicon of Tree and Shrub Species, p. 165
  3. ↑ a b c Fagus grandifolia. In: Flora of North America Vol. 3. www.eFloras.org, accessed October 7, 2010 .
  4. ↑ a b c Schütt et al .: Lexicon of Tree and Shrub Species, p. 166
  5. ↑ a b Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Fagus. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  6. ↑ Fagus grandifolia. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed October 7, 2010 .
  7. ↑ Beech on holzwurm-page.de, accessed on November 17, 2016.

Web links

Commons : American beech ( Fagus grandifolia )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Carl H. Tubbs, David R. Houston: Fagus grandifolia. In: Silvics of North America, Volume 2. USDA Forrest Service, accessed January 14, 2015 .