Wild Wednesday - Common beech
The Common beech is known as the queen of British trees and is one of our most widely recognised and well-established trees, particularly in the woodland of the south. Here, it grows tall (some more than 40 metres high) and broad, turning a wonderful golden-brown colour in the autumn, and at this time it leaves the floor beneath with its nuts (known as 'mast').
The young leaves are lime green with silky hairs and as they mature they become darker green and lose their hairs. The leaves are four to nine centemetres long, stalked, oval and pointed at the tip, with a wavy edge. They often hold on to their leaves throughout winter, a trait known as "marcescence" . The bark is smooth, thin and grey, often with slight horizontal etchings.
For more images and facts, click here: Beech, common (Fagus sylvatica) - Woodland Trust