European Beech
Fagus sylvatica · Fagaceae · 유럽너도밤나무
How to spot it
Marked by thin, smooth dark-gray bark, elliptic leaves with wavy margins, and long pointed winter buds.
Look
- Leaves
- Elliptic to ovate leaves, with soft hairs along the margins of young leaves.
- Flowers
- Male flowers are greenish-yellow, drooping in round clusters on long stalks; female flowers are reddish-brown in short-stalked clusters.
- Fruit
- A spiny outer husk splits into four parts, holding brown three-angled nuts.
- Bark
- Thin, smooth, dark-gray bark.
Where it grows
- Native to
- The region from central and southern Europe to the Caucasus.
- Ecology
- Grows in woodland; the nuts feed birds, squirrels and small mammals. It is described as poor in high summer heat and in city conditions.