Fagus, Common Beech, European Beech Tree 'Laciniata'

there are several large, old, impressive cut leaf beech ( f.laciniata ) growing in the Philadelphia area; these specimens must each ...Read Morebe at least several hundred years old, maybe more; one is at the former grounds of the Barnes museum; others, I believe at Longwood Gardens and Haverford College. These are very stately trees and seem to flourish in this mid-atlantic environment.The foliage is luxuriant and truly " lace -like " and the habit despite the great size of their trunks is graceful with branches inclined with a downward curve from the trunk and then slightly upward as they reach for the sun
My infatuation has impelled me to buy some small specimens from a midwest nursery; Why these are not available locally, I don't know; perhaps nobody has the time and those that do are obsessed with native plants................stephen gale

Although I have many cultivars of F. sylvatica, including the similar
'Asplenifolia," 'Laciniata' is not among them. But I have se...Read Moreen it growing in France, where it had a single, unfused bole pruned
clear to 12 feet. If one did the same to 'Asplenifolia' it would
look like a sheared poodle. That is to say, the habit of 'Laciniata' appears to be more oaklike than other Euro beeches.