Beech, the Mother Tree, Queen of the Forest
A Mythic Forest The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, once covered most of North America from Canada to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. Before colonists cleared our ancient forests for farmland, large beech groves grew as part of the climax forest community. A single beech tree can live for centuries, and as it ages it surrounds itself with sapling trees growing as suckers from its relatively shallow root system, forming an expanding grove of graceful beech trees....
