The beech forest has accompanied man for thousands of years. Its names, fau, fayard, fouteau, fouillard, resound in the shade of many localities. Let's discover this elegantly noble tree.
A tree of the shade
The common beech, Fagus sylvatica, appreciates the humidity and coolness of the mountains, the northern or sub-Atlantic regions, the shade of its fellow trees... Present in many French forests, it sometimes imposes itself in exclusive beech forests, or associates with oak, ash, fir, and sometimes spruce. Adapted to all types of soils, deep in valleys, superficial on outcropping rocks, it will show some reluctance for acidity. Remarkable tree of our forests, the beech owes its reputation to its haughty beauty, to its qualities of firewood, but also to its small edible fruits, its medicinal properties buried in our memories, its varied uses and its forgotten legends.
Recipes from beech
"Beech acorn", the common name for the beech tree's crown, recalls the time when pigs were fed with the fruits of the forest, under the oak or beech groves. But this small triangular fruit appreciated by domestic and wild animals is not disdained by man. Peeled and crunched raw, it is pleasant. Roasted in a frying pan, its flavor is even better. However, its consumption must remain limited, as the side effects are known to occur in quantity. Horses are particularly sensitive to it. If the sedge is eaten, its oil, which was extremely famous in its time, is of excellent quality, without toxic active ingredients. The only concern is the irregularity of production, as beech trees bear fruit irregularly, and 2 to 3 years can pass without fruit...
In other times, during periods of famine, boiled beechnuts and dried bark were crushed and mixed with barley or oats.
Medicinal properties
If the oak deserves attention for its multiple medicinal properties, sometimes forgotten, the beech remains discreet, in the therapeutic shadow of its colleague. Its leaves were once prescribed as detersive and astringent, its bark would also be astringent. It was compared to cinchona for its febrifuge actions, harvested on the young twigs of 2 to 3 years. Creosote, an antiseptic and disinfectant, is derived from beechwood tar. It is more used for entomological boxes than for therapeutic purposes, as it is currently considered harmful. Beech charcoal is said to be bactericidal and anti-tubercular. The buds are used in gemmotherapy, they could play a role in the functioning of the kidney.
Uses of beech
Beech adapts easily to different environments, but its wood is changed. Its colors and properties vary according to the habitat, the calcareous soils of the plain will favor a clear, yellowish white wood, easy to work, while the siliceous soils of the mountains will see a harder, nervous wood grow, turning pinkish and even reddish, more difficult to work. The uses are multiple, furniture, paper pulp, fiberboard, flooring and paneling, objects worked on the lathe, oars, shovels, agricultural tools, buckets. The clog makers considered it the best wood after walnut. Not very resistant to bad weather, it must be treated to last. Thus coated with creosote, its own tar, it will line up alongside oak to serve as railroad ties.
Although it can be worked well, except for lumber, beech has a solid reputation as a firewood, as well as for its coal.
In the past, the soft autumn leaves filled canvas bags that served as mattresses, just like dried fern.
Some stories...
Slender and majestic, smooth and shiny bark, sumptuous autumn colors... The beech would be of the nobility of trees, bearer of softness, of female knowledge. It evokes a strong vitality, a power that would come from the stones that mix with it when lichens cover them both. If it does not support lightning and solitude, different from the oak, it symbolizes mutual aid, the united forest.
The magical virtues of the beech wand, divinatory if necessary but also capable of paralyzing snakes, are still cited by some elders.
The beech was used in small sticks by the Germans to write their alphabet, the runes, its name is also found in the German literary vocabulary.
A tree of freshness, familiar to our forests and parks where the majestic silhouettes of the purple beeches stand, will the beech be able to adapt to global warming?
