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Beech

The Fagus Grandifolia is commonly known as American Beech, Beech, Carolina Beech, Gray Beech, Red Beech, Ridge Beech, as well as White Beech

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Growing Regions

American beech is distributed from Cape Brenton Island, Nova Scotia west to Maine, southern Quebec, southern Ontario, northern Michigan, and eastern Wisconsin; south to southern Illinois, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas; east to northern Florida; and northeast to southeastern South Carolina. An isolated variety (var. mexicana) occurs in the mountains of northeastern Mexico [41,22].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of American beech is Fagus grandifolia (Ehrh.) Little [26]. Some authorities hold that the southern beeches vary and describe the southern form as F. grandifolia var. caroliniana (Loud) Fernald & Rehder [32]. The variety F. grandifolia var. mexicana (Martinez) is found in Mexico [26].

American beech is either a dominant or codominant species in the
northern hardwoods of the Northeast, Lake States, and the Appalachian
Mountains.  Common associates include sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red
maple (A. rubrum), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), American
basswood (Tilia americana), black cherry (Prunus serotina), southern
magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), red
spruce (Picea rubens), hickories (Carya spp.), and oaks (Quercus spp.)
[3,41].

Published classification schemes listing American beech as dominant or
codominant in habitat types (hts) are listed below:

Area                           Classification      Authority         
 
n MI, ne WI                    forest hts          Coffman, Alyanak &
                                                   Rosovosky 1980
n WI                           forest hts          Kotar & others 1989
n WI, n MI                     forest hts          Kotar 1986

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Coladonato, Milo. 1991. Fagus grandifolia. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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