American Beech

Fagus grandifolia

303 Park Drive

The large tree with the smooth gray bark is an American beech tree. It is a native of eastern hardwood forests. Although it is easy to identify it by the bark, tree identification students should also take note of the dark green leaves with saw-toothed edges, and the cigar-shaped buds evident in the winter.

Beech nuts are edible and a favorite of pigs, birds, squirrels and other wildlife. The extinct passenger pigeon was especially associated with beech nuts.

The American beech has European relatives, which have the same smooth bark. It was on such smooth surfaces that much early writing was said to be done. In A Natural History of Trees, Donald Peattie says that "our word book comes from the Anglo-Saxon "boc", meaning a letter or character, which in turn derives from the Anglo-Saxon "beece," for beech.

Nominated by: Chris Schnepf