Common beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of the most majestic of European native trees, yet also makes an excellent formal hedge as it tolerates regular clipping. Although deciduous, beech is still good to use as a screening hedge as growth is dense, twiggy, and the dead leaves usually remain on the branches for much of the winter, often until the new leaves appear in spring. There are both green and purple-leaved varieties of common beech which are suitable for hedging. The purple-leaved form (Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea’ is commonly known as copper beech. To grow as individual trees, the common beech species becomes too big for all but the largest gardens, but there are columnar (fastigiate) and weeping forms of beech that are much more compact in size.
Identifying beechBeech leaves are 5-10cm long, oval in shape with a slightly pointed tip, and wavy edges. Young leaves are a light and intense bright green in colour when first opening in spring, with a covering of silky hairs. As the growing season progresses the leaves mature to dark green, turning yellow to orange-brown in autumn. Mature trees also bear tiny green flowers in spring followed in autumn by small, brownish bristly-cased capsules that encase tiny nuts known as ‘beech mast’.
As individual trees, the green-leaved beech Fagus sylvatica is largest-growing, reaching a mature height of at least 25m and forming a wide-spreading densely branched canopy with a minimum spread of 15m. Columnar varieties of beech are narrow and pyramidal in shape, while weeping varieties of beech attain a relatively low height and form a broad head of pendulous branches.
As a traditional hedge furnished with growth to ground level, beech can be clipped to a height from around 1.2m
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