Fagus sylvatica

		Bark: smooth and grey with horizontal ridges and patches of lichen Foliage: deciduous; light green in spring, dark in summer turning to golden yellow or brown in autumn. The leaves and vein angles are edged with small hairs. Fruit: ripe by late September, the almond-shaped beechnuts are grouped by twos or threes in a husk covered in soft spikes.

Size: up to 30 or 40 metres tall with a trunk often over one metre in diameter. Lifetime: between 300 and 500 years.

Use: fuel, woodwork and paper. Habitat: beech trees grow as well on the plain as in mountainous areas. They like shade and moisture. In the Pyrenees: at the mountain level of northern slopes throughout the range. The Iraty forest in the west is one of Europe's biggest beech groves. Typical companions: Welsh poppy, yew, lupin, wood saxifrage, sweet woodruff, yellow pea, Pyrenean squill, bird's nest orchid, bear's garlic ransoms.

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