What can you plant beneath an old fagus grandifolia?

How many times have we heard that question? Well, here's one answer. Scilla.

Scott

Magnificently sculpted old tree, with no apparent carving even!
Where is it?

Guy S.

Has the ground around the tree been excavated long ago or does the tree rise up and expose its roots. Love it. Lots of kids at the school loved climbing on that one.

me!! plant me!! my favorite tree! wow is it beautiful!

and if that's not possible perhaps bottlebush buckeye would be lovely around the base of the tree

That tree is in an older part of Cincinnati called Obrienville. I don't know the owner of the home or the history of the tree, just that I've passed it frequently over the past several years and admired the nice planting of scilla beneath it. This was the first year I worked up the nerve to go get a picture.

Scott

Definitely Fagus grandifolia?

Could easily be planted F. sylvatica, from what's visible here

Resin

Resin,

You know, I just assumed it was Fagus grandifolia, because most of them are around here. And I just jumped out of the car to grab a shot and most of my attention was on the Scilla. At this time of year, how does one differentiate the American from the English?

Oh, and I stopped at another park on my way home today, and here was a Mini-me set-up. This location is not more than three miles from the grand tree and Scilla at a private residence. I would have to say that some city park employee with an altruistic streak for future residents copped the idea.

Scott

Hi Scott,

It can, and will, be done. Scott will just have to go up and snatch a leaf.

Fagus grandifolia foliage (and since the plant is marcescent, you've got leaves to look at) will have smallish teeth (serrate) along the leaf edge. Fagus sylvatica foliage will not, but may have a little wave to the entire edge. Obviously, some of the clones/cultivars of European beech will have some variety to their leaf morphology (á la Fagus sylvatica 'Asplenifolia').

Learned this through observation, and was confirmed by how local university hort professor taught his ID class with the following story (so it would stick in the dunciferous LA students' minds):

The Europeans came across the waves of the Atlantic to the shores of North America, where they encountered the indigenous Americans with their pointy arrows.

Not my story, just passing it along.

just a quick comment here....the horticultorist i work with can idenify them without leaves by just the bark....i suppose that's because it's his job. i know personally for me when he took me over to wave hill in ny...i was so in love with the copper beech which was at least 100 years old, i wanted to pump a tent under it and never leave! hench my above offer.

personally...any type of of Fagus will do for me! the copper is a bit large for my property (although i would love 10 or more!) so i have "settled" for the Fagus Sylvatica 'Purple Fountain Weeping" and my other fav Fagus Sylvatric "Purpur. Tricolor".

We had huge native beech trees in Michigan that started in the first clear cuts of the big pines that covered the michigan forests. today they are 4' in diameter and smooth and beautiful with their laterals starting 4' off the ground and the forest under them covered with the spectacular foilage that fell.