Beech

From Free net encyclopedia

This article describes the beech tree. Beech is also the name of an aircraft manufacturer that was acquired by Raytheon.

{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Beech | image = EuroBeech.jpg | image_width = 260px | image_caption = European Beech leaves and cupules | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Fagales | familia = Fagaceae | genus = Fagus | genus_authority = L. | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = Fagus crenata - Japanese Beech
Fagus engleriana - Chinese Beech
Fagus grandifolia - American Beech
Fagus hayatae - Taiwan Beech
Fagus japonica - Japanese Blue Beech
Fagus longipetiolata - South Chinese Beech
Fagus lucida - Shining Beech
Fagus mexicana - Mexican Beech or Haya
Fagus orientalis - Oriental Beech
Fagus sylvatica - European Beech
}}

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 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 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.

Beeches are used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera - see list of Lepidoptera which feed on Beeches.

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.