Beech Tree Information

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Beech grows in the following 34 states and provinces:

Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Information about Beech:


More information about Beech may be found here.

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

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

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 .

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.) . 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

Some of the information provided 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 the USDA Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) website