Winter buds long and slender, at least 4 times as long as
wide; staminate flowers in globose heads on drooping
peduncles; nuts sharply 3-angled 1 Fagus.
Winter buds not long and slender and less than 4 times as
long as wide; staminate flowers in slender catkins;
nuts not as above.
Staminate catkins erect or spreading; nut flattened on
one side and enclosed in a spiny, woody husk 2 Castanea.
Staminate catkins drooping; nuts not flattened on one
side, seated in a scaly, woody cup 3 Quercus.
=1. FÀGUS.= The Beech.
=Fagus grandifòlia= Ehrhart. Beech. Plate 38. Large tall trees with bark
from light to dark gray; twigs densely covered at first with long hairs,
soon becoming glabrous and turning to a reddish-brown; terminal winter
buds about 2 cm. long; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, long taper-pointed
to merely acute, wedge-shape to cordate at base, regularly and usually
minutely serrate, average blades 7-12 cm. long, silky when young,
becoming at maturity glabrous above and nearly so beneath except on the
veins; flowers appear in May; fruit a bur, supported on a club-shaped
pubescent peduncle about 1.5 cm. long, covered with short recurved
prickles, densely rufous-pubescent, its 4-valves enclosing the two
triangular brown nuts; nuts edible; wood very hard, strong, usually
tough, difficult to season, close-grained, takes a high polish, sap wood
white, heart wood reddish.
=Distribution.=--Nova Scotia, southern Ontario to Wisconsin, south to
the Gulf States and Texas. It is found in every county of the State,
although it is local in the prairie and dry sandy regions of the
northwestern part of the State. It is a frequent to a very common tree
on the high ground in many parts of the State. If the high ground and
hills of the State are not forested with white and black oak, beech is
almost certain to be the prevailing species. Wherever beech is found it
is usually a frequent to a common tree, and it is not uncommon to see
areas which are almost a pure stand of this species. It is also a
frequent to a common tree in southern Indiana in what is called the
"flats." Here it is associated with sweet gum and pin oak. On the slopes
of hills of the southern counties it is associated with a great variety
of trees. In the central part of the State its most frequent associate
is the sugar maple. In the northern counties it has a wider range of
associates, including white oak, ash, slippery elm, buckeye, ironwood,
etc. It should be added that tulip is a constant associate except in the
"flats." In point of number it ranks as first of Indiana trees.
[Illustration: Plate 38.