North Carolina Botanical Garden

Plant Index

Scientific Name:
Common Name:
Genus:
Family:

Fagus grandifolia

Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.

american beech, gray beech, red beech

Synonym(s): Fagus americana, Fagus ferruginea, Fagus grandifolia ssp. heterophylla, Fagus grandifolia var. caroliniana

Image ID: 8350
Image by: Parkins, Grant Morrow
Image Collection: NCBG Digital Library

PLANT INDEX

ID_PLANT: FAGR
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Fagus grandifolia
Include in WOTAS: 0
Publish to Web: 1
Last Modified: 2019-11-30

GENUS INDEX

GENUS CODE: FAGUS
GENUS SCIENTIFIC: Fagus
GENUS AUTHORITY: L.
GENUS COMMON: Beech
GENUS SUMMARY: A genus of about 10 species, trees, of temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Our native trees belong to subgenus Fagus, section Grandifolia (Shen 1992).
GENUS IDENTIFICATION:
GENUS REFERENCES: Cooper & Mercer (1977)=Z; Nixon in FNA (1997); Shen (1992)=X; Kubitzki in Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Elias (1971a)=Y; Stanford (1998); Govaerts & Frodin (1998)=V.

FAMILY INDEX

FAMILY CODE: FAGACE
FAMILY SCIENTIFIC: Fagaceae
FAMILY AUTHORITY: Dumortier 1829
FAMILY COMMON: Beech Family
FAMILY SUMMARY: A family of about 8 genera and 620-1050 species, trees and shrubs, mostly of the Northern Hemisphere, but extending into se. Asia and Australia.
FAMILY REFERENCE: Nixon in FNA (1997); Govaerts & Frodin (1998); Kubitzki in Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Elias (1971a).

NCBG DESCRIPTIVES

INTRO:
STEMS: Pith continuous. Young twigs (1-year-old or less) brown or green or olive-green or orange or red or reddish-brown or tan, glabrate or pubescent. Twigs (2â€“4 years old) glabrous or pubescent. Leaf scars half-round, bundle scars 3â€“9 per leaf scar, stipule scars present, stipule scars circumferential or not circumferential. Bark of mature trunks smooth. Buds axillary or pseudoterminal or terminal, brown or reddish-brown, 10â€“25 mm long, fusiform or lanceoloid, sharp, pubescent, puberulent, bud scales imbricate.
LEAVES: Leaves deciduous, simple, petiolate, alternate, 6â€“15 cm long, 2.5â€“8 cm wide, obovate or oval or ovate, leaf margins serrate or serrulate, leaf apices acuminate or acute, leaf bases cordate or cuneate or obtuse or rounded. Leaf upper surface blue-green or green, glabrous or glabrate. Leaf lower surface green or yellow-green, glabrate or pubescent or with tufts in vein axils, pilose or puberulent or villous. Leaf venation pinnate, secondary veins on either side of the midvein 9â€“14. Petioles 0.4â€“1.6 cm long, glabrous or pubescent. Stipules present, 20â€“40 mm long, caducous, circumferential or not circumferential.
INFLORESCENCE: Inflorescences axillary or terminal, fascicles or heads or spikes, flowers sessile or stalked.
FLOWERS: Flowers unisexual or pistillate or staminate, epigynous. Perianth. Calyx radially symmetric, aposepalous or synsepalous. Sepals 4â€“8 per flower. Corolla absent. Androecium. Stamens 6â€“16 per flower, separate. Gynoecium. Ovaries inferior, pistils 1 per flower. Gynoecium syncarpous, 3 carpels per flower, styles 3 per pistil, placentation axile. Other floral features. Hypanthia present, involucres present.
FRUITS: Fruits nuts, 1.2â€“2.2 cm long, brown or reddish-brown, fruit maturation 1 years.
COMMENTS: Leaves with straight, unbranched, lateral veins, each ending in a tooth at the leaf margin; old yellowish brown to tan leaves often persist on branches through the winter; fruits are enclosed by prickly bracts that split open at the end of the summer revealing the 2 or 3, small, 3-angled nuts.
HEIGHT: 50-80 feet

DURATION: Perennial
HABIT: Tree

LEAF ARRANGEMENT: Alternate
LEAF COMPLEXITY: Simple
LEAF RETENTION: Deciduous

FLORAL CHARACTERISTICS
SYMMETRY:
BLOOM TIME: February - May

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
	x	x	x	x

BLOOM COLOR:

White	Red	Pink	Orange	Yellow	Green	Blue	Lavender	Purple	Violet	Brown	Not Applicable
				x	x					x

FRUITING PERIOD: Sep-Oct.

DISTRIBUTION
HABITAT TYPE: Bottomlands, Moist forests
NATIVE RANGE: eastern North America

HORTICULTURAL
Plant Sale Text: Fagus grandifolia is commonly found growing in moist mature forests and is easily identified by its thin, smooth gray bark. This long-lived tree is host to over 100 species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) and provide high protein seeds (triangular nuts enclosed in spiny bracts) critical to the diets of many mammals and birds. This species forms an oval to rounded canopy overtime and performs well in full shade.

Bloom Table Text:

NCBG Location:

Cultural Notes:

SOIL MOISTURE: Dry, Average, Moist/Wet, Well-drained
LIGHT EXPOSURE: Sun, Part Shade, Shade
MINIMUM HARDINESS ZONE: 3
MAXIMUM HARDINESS ZONE: 9
GERMINATION CODE:
WILDLIFE VALUE: Butterfly Friendly, Bird Friendly
DEER RESISTANCE:

GRIM COLLECTIONS

Coll_id	Project	Collection date	Collector	Action
379	HORT		Liloia	View

GRIM ACCESSIONS

acc_id	acc_num	acc_dt	coll_id	Action
375	2011-0248	2011-11-29	379	View
3103	1989-0061			View
3751	1991-0446			View
4472	1992-0628			View
4887	1995-0005			View
5116	1995-0235			View
5645	1995-0769			View
6099	1995-1230			View
8803	2007-0073	2007-03-13		View
8843	2007-0153	2007-06-19		View
9468	2021-0125	2021-12-21	0	View

GRIM PLANTINGS

plt_num	acc_id	loc_num	pers_num	inst_dt	Action
906	375	109	Liloia	2011-11-14	View
5157	3103	241	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
5158	3103	1	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
6058	3751	199	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
6800	4472	200	NCBG staff	1993-03-01	View
7305	4887	202	NCBG staff	1992-01-01	View
7538	5116	203	NCBG staff	1992-01-01	View
8159	5645	204	NCBG staff	1993-01-01	View
8749	6099	2	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
8750	6099	2	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
8751	6099	2	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
8752	6099	2	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
8753	6099	2	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
12057	8803	70	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
12085	8843	11	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
12952	9468	154	MacIntyre	0000-00-00	View
13070	0	25	Liloia	0000-00-00	View
13407	0	205	NCBG staff	0000-00-00	View
14082	0	34	Wait	1899-11-30	View

USDA PLANTS DATABASE

USDA Symbol: FAGR
USDA Common Name: American Beech
Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)
Distribution: USA (AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV), CAN (NB, NS, ON, PE, QC)
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Tree

NATIONAL WETLAND INDICATOR STATUS

Region:	AGCP	AK	AW	CB	EMP	GP	HI	MW	NCNE	WMVE
Status:	FACU				FACU	FACU		FACU	FACU

This information is derived from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2016 National Wetland Plant List, Version 3.3 (Lichvar, R.W., D.L. Banks, W.N. Kirchner, and N.C. Melvin. 2016. The National Wetland Plant List: 2016 wetland ratings. Phytoneuron 2016-30: 1-17. Published 28 April 2016. ISSN 2153 733X). Regions: AGCP-Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, AK-Alaska, AW-Arid West, CB-Caribbean, EMP-Eastern Mountains and Piedmont, GP-Great Plains, HI-Hawaii, MW-Midwest, NCNE-Northcentral and Northeast, WMCV-Western Mountains, Valleys & Coast

WEAKLEY FLORA

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Fagus grandifolia var. grandifolia
COMMON NAME: Gray Beech, Red Beech, American Beech
SYNONYMY: [= C, F, G, Y; < F. grandifolia - FNA, K1, K2, Mo, Pa, RAB, S, Va, W, WV, Z; < F. grandifolia ssp. grandifolia - V; = F. grandifolia ssp. grandifolia - X]
PHENOLOGY: Apr-May; Sep-Oct.
HABITAT: Moderate to high elevation forests, especially on high elevation ridges, gaps, and open slopes, often forming clonal dwarfed thickets in the most exposed situations.
COMMENTS: NS, NB, and s. QC west to s. ON and n. MI, south to VA, w. NC, n. GA, e. TN, and n. OH. Red beech is alleged to differ from gray beech in having the involucral segments not covering the nutlets at maturity. Hardin & Johnson (1985), Hardin (1985), and Shen (1992) point out that var. mexicana (Martínez) Little, of the mountains of México, is more closely related to our montane variety or phase than to the lower elevation variety or phase.
RANGE MAP: Fagus grandifolia var. grandifolia.png

Key to Map Symbols

ABOUT FAMILY (Weakley Flora)
Fagaceae Dumortier 1829 (Beech Family)
SUMMARY: A family of about 8 genera and 620-1050 species, trees and shrubs, mostly of the Northern Hemisphere, but extending into se. Asia and Australia.
REFERENCE: Nixon in FNA (1997); Govaerts & Frodin (1998); Kubitzki in Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Elias (1971a).

ABOUT GENUS (Weakley Flora)
Fagus L. (Beech)
SUMMARY: A genus of about 10 species, trees, of temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Our native trees belong to subgenus Fagus, section Grandifolia (Shen 1992).
REFERENCE: Cooper & Mercer (1977)=Z; Nixon in FNA (1997); Shen (1992)=X; Kubitzki in Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993); Elias (1971a)=Y; Stanford (1998); Govaerts & Frodin (1998)=V.

HERBARIUM RESOURCES

SERNEC: Find Fagus grandifolia in Southeast Regional Network of Experts and Collections (if available)
UNC SERNEC: Find Fagus grandifolia in University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Herbarium - Southeast Regional Network of Experts and Collections (if available)

WEB RESOURCES

USDA: Find Fagus grandifolia in USDA Plants
NPIN: Find Fagus grandifolia in NPIN Database
FNA: Find Fagus grandifolia in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Fagus grandifolia

IMAGE USE RECORDS

ID IMAGE: 8350 - Primary Image FloraQuest Plant Detail Page (Landscape Preferred)
ID IMAGE1: 8350 - Primary Image WOTAS
ID IMAGE2: 8349 - Secondary Image WOTAS
ID IMAGE3: 4401 - Primary Image Plant Sale Sign (Landscape Only)
ID IMAGE4: 0 - Primary Image New Plant Sale Label (Portrait Only)