Features of the trunk of a beech
- Size: up to 2 meters in diameter
- Color: first dark green to black, later silver gray
- Bark: very smooth with few cracks, hardly any knotholes, very thin
- Bark: hardly any bark formation
The most important feature is the silver-gray color that makes the tree distinctive.
also read
- You can recognize a beech by these characteristics
- Can a beech be transplanted?
- How to properly fertilize a beech tree
Beech trunks have a very thin bark that only becomes a little thicker over the years. In contrast to other forest trees such as oaks, beeches hardly get any bark. The bark crumbles and falls off as gray dust. It covers the ground and provides a supply of nutrients.
In the forest beeches get a high trunk
The beech forms a high trunk in the forest. The crown starts high. The prerequisite is low planting around the beech. The foliage from other trees must shade the trunk.
Since the bark is very thin, a freestanding beech tree gets sunburn very quickly. That is why the treetop is much lower in individual trees.
Recognize the age of the beech from the trunk
If you want to know how old a beech tree is, measure the trunk at a height of one meter. Multiply the result by 0.6 and you get the probable age of the beech. The result will be even more precise if you take two measurements, one at a height of one meter and one at a height of 1.5 meters. Take the mean and also multiply it by 0.6.
In the case of very old trees that have long been fully grown, the trunk no longer becomes thicker. Here the age can only be narrowed down more precisely based on location and historical descriptions. Annual rings, as they occur in other tree trunks, are only very little pronounced in the beech.
Tips
The wood of beech naturally has a slightly reddish sheen. If it is steamed, the wood takes on the shade of red that is particularly valued in furniture construction. It's not as hard as that of the hornbeam.
