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A Tale of the Beech

Beech Fagus sylvatica

The beech should be much more widespread here than it actually is. The Northern Black Forest was re-forested in the 19th Century, after around two-thirds of the trees were felled for timber and use in the various industries, iron-smelting, glass-making, ....

The tree of choice for re-planting was the spruce, which meant beech trees became much less common. Now you see the brilliant green of the fresh leaves in spring and the glowing autumn colours in amongst the conifers, but deciduous trees like beech, oak, alder and so on, make up only around 6 % of the trees here. The trees are generally also not as large as they would be in an open beech forest.

Beech twig in autumn

Beech twig in autumn

Beech mast

Beech mast