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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
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Plant · P-555
European Beech
Fagus sylvatica
European Beech is the beech behind classic European hedging and woodland, and its nuts are a noticeably better food than the American beech's. It flushes new leaves twice a year, but they toughen fast, so only about three weeks of growth after each flush is tender enough for a raw salad. Cut hard and late in summer, its hedges hold their dead leaves through winter, giving one of the few deciduous screens that stays solid year round. Unlike hazel or willow, it cannot be coppiced for fuel - cutting it back produces little or no regrowth, so its wood comes from felling and thinning instead.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–7
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 5–7.4
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 50–60 ft
- Mature spread
- 35–50 ft
- Plant spacing
- 24–60 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Alligator Juniper
Juniperus deppeana
Alligator juniper is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen conifer named for its thick, deeply furrowed, plated bark that resembles reptile…
Canopy · USDA 6–9
Almond
Prunus amygdalus
Almond flowers earlier than almost any other cultivated tree, which is its biggest weakness as much as its gift to early pollinators - a warm…
Canopy · USDA 7–9
American Basswood
Tilia americana
American Basswood is famous for the bees - mature trees hum audibly for several feet around when they bloom in early summer, giving one of…
Canopy · USDA 3–8
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…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
American chestnut once carried the sweetest nut of any chestnut species and covered more than 200 million acres of eastern forest, but an…
Canopy · USDA 5–8
American Elm
Ulmus americana
American Elm is a native stream-bank tree that grows into a 60 to 80 foot vase-shaped shade crown and, once mature, becomes one of the…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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