During the winter months in my small part of the woods, the beautiful fall gives way to soft winter and then bitter winter and then weeks pass and a warmer breath comes in and we may go back to fall for a small time. The beech trees hang on to their golden/copper flags until the bitter end. The family genus name Fagus (Latin for beech) seems unfair in sound as the tree is elegant with sweeping arms and a smooth and lovely gray trunk reaching to the sky. The trunk is perfect for carving by lovers, sadly. The tree is fertile in that it spreads by both seeds and roots and yet it does not comprise a large portion of my woods. The leaves are like copper metallic jewels even in mid-winter.
It is as if some metal artist left behind earrings and pendants at the end of silk and silver gray fingers waiting for some maiden to claim her bling.
They stand out easily in the woods like soft lights.
They outshine the shiny green of evergreen holly. They are the last to grow in the forest accepting their place in the shade of much larger oaks and tulip trees and are members of a climax forest. They accept their place beneath those taller soldiers with their heads in the fog.
The base of the elegant beech can be quite a network of roots with impressive gray toes like elephant's feet emerging from the trunk when it grows taller and eventually becoming a massive network beneath the tree.
This beech below grows next to my drive and I see it every day when I leave.
Such beautiful writing. A lovely sensory experience for this cold, foggy Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteAnd when they are done they make excellent fireplace logs.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful poetry with the photos!
ReplyDeleteCheery all the way through the woods.
ReplyDeleteVery pretty photos. We have beech trees here, but many are dying due to a disease. Andrea
ReplyDeleteBeech are very rare here and then only as a planting. There was one across the street from me so I'm aware that they are very handsome trees.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, i don't think we have many (if any) here. They do deserve a prettier formal name.
ReplyDeletethe beech is a relative to the aspen. I read some years ago that aspens are not really individual trees but members of a single organism all connected by the root system. I imagine the beech is similar.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images of trees surrounded by leaves.
ReplyDeleteLovely walk through trees and the beech is beautiful. Here in England it is often used as a hedge and the leaves stay all winter but you do not get that beautiful play of light.
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