English, Danish, French, Slovenian beech, and others, according to origin.

Europe, especially Central Europe and Britain.

Beech has been called the mother of the forest, since without it in mixed broad leaved forests, other hardwood timber trees would have greater difficulties for survival. The rain drip from beech destroys many soil-exhausting weeds, its shades prevent over-evaporation of moisture from the soil and its heavy crop of leaves provides humus to the soil. In closed forests, it can reach a height of 45m with a clear bole of 15m, but on average this is usually about 9m with a diameter averaging 1.2m occasionally more.

Normally there is no clear distinction by colour between sapwood and heartwood. The wood is very pale brown when freshly cut, turning reddish brown on exposure, and deep reddish brown under the influence of steaming treatment, commonly applied in parts of the continent before shipment. Some logs show an irregular, dark reddish-coloured kern or heart, caused, it is believed, by the effect of severe frosts, and occurring more frequently in Continental Beech. The wood is typically straight grained, with a fine, even texture, but varying in density and hardness according to the locality of growth. Thus, beech from central Europe, notably that from Yugoslavia (Slovenian), and that from Romania, is milder and lighter in weight, about 672 kg/m3, than beech from Britain, Denmark and Northern Europe, which weighs about 720 kg/m3 when dried.

Green Beech has general strength properties roughly equal to those of oak, but after drying, most values increase and beech is stronger than oak in bending strength, stiffness and shear by about 20%, and considerably stronger in resistance when it impacts loads.

Perishable

Beech varies somewhat in its ease of working and machining, according to its growth characteristics and dried conditions. Thus, fairly tough material or badly dried stock may tend to bind on the saw, or burn when cross-cut, or, if distorted due to drying, provide difficulties in planning. On the whole, however, it works fairly readily and takes stains and polishes satisfactorily. It produces excellent veneer.

The uses for beech are innumerable, from furniture, both solid and laminated from veneer, to domestic wood ware, shoe heels, toys, bobbins, tool handles, interior joinery, interior construction, and plywood, flooring and turnery.