Plant · P-554

American Beech

Fagus grandifolia

American Beech is a slow, long-lived shade tree that can establish and eventually fruit even under an existing forest canopy, unlike almost any other large nut tree. Its sweet, protein-rich nuts feed deer, black bear, squirrels and birds, but a tree does not begin bearing until around forty years old and then only every two or three years. It spreads on its own by root suckers as well as by seed, often thickening into a pure grove where it is left alone. Its shallow, wide roots and dense shade make it impossible to underplant, so almost nothing grows well beneath a mature tree.