Beeches in Winter

American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) is one of my favorite trees throughout the year, but I find them particularly attractive during the winter. Here are a few pictures I took to demonstrate, please click on each picture to see a larger version with more detail.

This large, native tree has many winter assets, one of the most obvious is smooth, silvery bark, often covered with colorful lichens. Mature trees usually have massive trunks and dramatic root flares.

Here's a closeup of the bark with an interesting patchwork of lichens.

Additional winter assets include graceful branching, a fine tracery of twigs and buds, and persistent winter foliage. After turning a gorgeous, golden bronze in the autumn, the foliage often remains throughout the winter, especially on young trees and the lower portions of older trees. By late winter, the sun has bleached the leaves, changing their color to a transluscent buff. While not as showy as flowers, it adds a subtle beauty to the winter scenery.

A Boundless Moment

He halted in the wind, and - what was that
Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?
He stood there bringing March against his thought,
And yet too ready to believe the most.

"Oh, that's the Paradise-in-bloom," I said;
And truly it was fair enough for flowers
Had we but in us to assume in March
Such white luxuriance of May for ours.

We stood a moment so in a strange world,
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;
And then I said the truth (and we moved on).
A young beech clinging to its last year's leaves.

- Robert Frost

Even though they're deciduous, beeches can make great screening plants for woodland lots and gardens. That's because young trees remain healthy and maintain dense foliage despite heavy shade, and larger trees usually retain lower branches, along with their persistent winter foliage. Really mature trees often lose their lowest branches, but some are able to retain a fair number. Either way, you have to admit that by the time they get that mature the massive trunks provide decent screening!