Eggarton Cottages, Eggarton Lane, Godmersham, Kent, CT4 7DY
Tel/Fax: 01227 730242
Deciduous. Known in Anglo-Saxon times as Beace. �Fagus� stems from the Greek Phagein = �to eat�. Beech trees can live up to 300 years. Catkins are produced during April/May. During September the tree drops its nuts (known as masts), which are eaten by wild boar, deer, badgers, squirrels, wood mice, jays, rooks, pheasants, wood pigeons, great tits, chaffinches and bramblings. The tree is also a food plant for the Barred Hook-tip and Lobster moth caterpillars, and also the Beech Seed moth. Young trees grow quite quickly but it is some 60 years before seed can be successfully viable. Beech nut oil is also used for culinary purposes.
It is said that the gods Appollo and Athena sat in a Beech tree after transforming into vultures. They sat there and watched the fight between the Trojans and the Greeks. Beech trees were said to be able to convey messages from Zeus to the worshipper in the sacred grove of trees of Dodona in Epirus, Ancient Greece.
Few plants survive under Beech trees � White Helleborine, Yellow Birds Nest, Birds Nest, Birds Nest Orchid, Cuckoo-pint, Wild Strawberry, Germander Speedwell, Bugle and Wood Sedge. Edible fungi are often found on or around Beech trees (check, though, that they ARE truly edible!), for example, Horn of Plenty and Boletus.