Beech tree

Beech likes a humid atmosphere and well-drained soil and can be sensitive to frost. It grows in woods or as single trees, usually on drier, free-draining soils

The dense carpet of litter below beech trees stops most other woodland plants from growing, and only plants which specialise in tolerating shade can survive under a thick beech canopy.

A single beech tree has both male and female flowers. In April and May the tassel-like male catkins hang from long stalks at the end of twigs, while female flowers grow in pairs, surrounded by a cup. The cup becomes woody once pollinated by the wind and encloses one or two beech nuts, known as beechmast.

Young beech leaves are lime green with silky hairs. As they mature they become darker and hairless. They are 4-9cm long, stalked, oval and pointed at the tip, with a wavy edge. Dead leaves often stay on the tree all winter, a trait known as marcescence.

Beech timber is used for fuel and to make furniture, cooking utensils, tool handles and sports equipment. It is the traditional wood for smoking herrings to make kippers, and beech nuts were once fed to pigs.

Because of its dense canopy, beech woodland is associated with rarer plants such as box, coralroot bittercress and a variety of orchids.

It also provides an important habitat for many butterflies, particularly in open glades and along woodland rides. The caterpillars of moths including the barred hook-tip, clay triple-lines and olive crescent eat beech leaves, while mice, voles, squirrels and birds eat the seeds.

Native truffle fungi grow in beech woods and form a partnership with the trees, helping the host tree obtain nutrients in exchange for sugars. Because beech trees live so long, they provide gnarled and knotted habitats for many deadwood specialists such as hole-nesting birds and wood-boring insects. The bark is often home to a variety of fungi, mosses and lichens.

Fungal diseases can affect beech trees, and grey squirrels strip their bark.