Beech Tree

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 We have one mature and rather splendid beech tree at the corner of our top field. Beech trees are found across the Northern hemisphere preferring well drained soil. Beech trees are monoecious bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant.



It's a bit difficult to estimate the age of a tree precisely without cutting it down and counting the growth rings. Fortunately there are a number of "tree calculator" programmes about. Measure the circumference of the tree at chest height and select the tree type and the programme works it out for you. tree-age-calculator. Using this our tree turns out to be at least 142 years old.

Beech nuts (or mast) which is forming on the tree at the moment is an important foodstuff for mammals and birds. Beech wood has a number of uses - an interesting one is that slats of beechwood are laid at the bottom of the fermentation tank when brewing Budweiser Beer. Beech logs are used to dry the malt used in some German beers and some sausages and cheeses are smoked with beech. Sounds like a perfect meal to me.


Before the invention of paper tablets of Beech were used to write on. In German the word for Book is Buche and in some Scandinavian languages the word for beech and book are virtually the same - so that is where Books come from.
One of the joys of living around trees is watching them change with the seasons. The following clip from the Woodland Trust shows this better than I can. A Year In The Life

Diary
Foxes on the overnight trail cams. A lot of bats about last night but all common pipistrelles according to my detector. Moth trap produced 50 plus large yellow underwing and a dozen or so crane fly.  A pretty addition was this Centre Barred Sallow moth.

There were some very noisy buzzards near the house this morning.




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