BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Fagus grandifolia | American Beech 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Beech is a large, native, deciduous tree.  It normally grows 65 to 80
feet (20-25 m) tall but can can grow up to 130 feett (40 m) and can live
to over 300 years old.  The bark is blue gray.  The leaves are yellow
green during the growing season.  The branches are stout and horizontal,
or ascending, with interlocking leaves forming a dense crown.  The root
system is shallow and spreading.  The fruit is a bur, usually containing
two nuts [4,41].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte
   

REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Sexual reproduction:  Beech begin producing seed when 40 years old and
by 60 years old may produce large quantities.  Beech produces seed at 2-
to 8-year intervals.  Beech seeds average about 1,600 per pound
(3,500/kg) [41].  Most seeds drop to the ground.  A few are carried by
rodents but dispersal is limited.  Bluejays may transport seeds several
kilometers [9].  Most of the seeds will germinate in the 1st year; after
that, the seeds lose viability [41].

Beech seeds germinate from early spring to early summer.  Chilling is
required to break dormancy.  Germination is good on mineral soil or
leafy litter, but poor on excessively wet sites.  Seedlings grow best
under a moderate canopy or in protected small openings where the soil
does not dry out below the depth of the shallow roots [28].

Vegetative Reproduction:  Beech can regenerate by root suckers or by
stump sprouts [6].  Sprouts may develop on the trunk of a tree
immediately below a wound and from the top of stumps.  Adventitious buds
develop in callus tissue of the cambial layers of stumps.  Sprouts can
also develop from the exposure of the roots to air or elevated
temperatures.  Sometimes root sprouts develop when no apparent injury
has occurred [14].

The advance of beech bark disease, with its resultant mortality of
overstory beech stems, is likely to result in an increase in root
suckering [23].  Beech is more likely to develop by sprouting than by
seedling establishment [19].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Beech is found at low elevations in the North and relatively high
elevations in the South.  Local soil and climatic factors probably
determine whether beech grows at the higher elevations.  In the
Adirondack Mountains, low temperatures and wind keep beech below 3,200
feet (975 m) in contrast to the Appalachian Mountains where on the
warmer slopes it grows at elevations up to 6,000 (1,830 m) feet.  At
altitudes in the middle of its range, beech is more abundant on the
cooler, moister, northern slopes than on the southern slopes [41].

Beech is usually found within two principal soil groups:  the gray
podzolic (Hapludalf) and the laterite (Acrothox) and is prevalent on
podzols.  It is seldom found on limestone soils except in the western
edge of its range.  Beech populations are higher on coarse textured, dry
to mesic soils in the northern part of its range [2,41].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
American beech is a climax species that grows slowly underneath an
overstory of conifers or hardwoods.  Beech grows faster in canopy
openings and eventually ascends into the overstory [1,8].  In an
old-growth forest in New Hampshire, beech replaced yellow birch and
sugar maple and then was able to maintain itself via root suckering
[36].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Flowering occurs from March to May.  Fruiting occurs from September to
October.  Seeds are released in October or November after frost [33,42].

Related categories for Species: Fagus grandifolia | American Beech