# American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) > A smooth, silver-gray tree of eastern forests, with triangular nuts that feed wildlife and copper fall leaves that cling through winter. Also called white beech, red beech, gray beech, ridge beech, beechnut tree. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-beech/ ![American beech (Fagus grandifolia) toothed leaves and young prickly burs, smooth gray trunks behind](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-beech-h1610-800.jpg) *Photo: National Park Service, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABeech_Tree_with_Nuts_%28d45179de-91bd-4a26-bef6-4149382b831c%29.JPG)* ## Facts - Type: Large tree - Mature height: 50 to 80 ft - USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 9 - Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes, floodplain forests and the Appalachians - Native range: 31 states and the District of Columbia, north to Maine, south to Florida and west to Texas (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia). Also recorded in 2 other states, outside its native range - Sun: Full, Part, Shade - Soil moisture: Average - Growth rate: Slow - Traits: Wildlife value, Edible, Tolerates shade, Fall color, Winter interest - Sold as: Saplings, Nuts Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them. ## Availability Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed. ## Notes American beech is the only beech native to North America. In the northern hardwood forest it is the only tree that bears nuts. The extinct passenger pigeon fed on its nuts and roosted in its branches. Two diseases, each started by a pest from abroad, now threaten it. Beech bark disease, set off by a scale insect that arrived from Europe about 1890, has killed many of the big old trees in the Northeast. Beech leaf disease, first found in Ohio in 2012, has spread from Michigan to Maine and south to Virginia. Give it a park, a big lawn or a woodland edge, with room for its low, wide crown. ## Size, growth and what to expect American beech grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It reaches 50 to 80 feet with a low, wide crown 40 to 80 feet across, and 120 feet on the best sites. It is long-lived, often 200 to 300 years. Seedling trees bear in quantity at about 40 years, with good crops every two to eight years. It flowers from March to May, and the nuts ripen from September to November. Each prickly bur holds two, rarely three, triangular nuts ½ to ¾ inch long. The first nuts to fall are usually wormy or empty, and even full-sized nuts are often hollow. Bears, deer, turkeys, grouse, squirrels and blue jays eat them, and so do the caterpillars of the early hairstreak, a rare butterfly. It grows wild from Nova Scotia and southern Quebec west to eastern Wisconsin, and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida. Its home is rich, moist woods, cool slopes and ravines, and the biggest trees grow on the river bottoms of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. ## How to grow American Beech American beech grows in full sun or shade, and it is among the most shade-tolerant of trees. Give it a deep, moist, well-drained soil, acid and rich in humus. It will not take wet or compacted ground, and it suffers in drought. Its shallow roots make it hard to grow grass beneath it. Set trees 50 feet apart, and keep each one 40 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires. Saplings ship potted. Plant it while dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the pot and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Its shallow roots resent disturbance, so plant it young where it can stay, and keep digging and traffic off its root zone. Sow nuts in fall half an inch deep under hardware cloth, or rodents and birds take them. For spring, hold them damp in the refrigerator for 90 days first. Seedlings come up in spring. Water every week or two through the first summer when rain is short. Deer seldom browse beech, but guard the young stem from rabbits and voles with a tube. Prune lightly, in summer or early fall, since wounds in the thin bark heal slowly and let decay in. American beech carries male and female flowers on the same tree, but a lone tree sets mostly empty nuts, so plant two trees and let the wind carry pollen between them. In beech bark disease, an introduced scale insect opens the bark to canker fungi, and about half the mature trees die within ten years of its arrival. Beech leaf disease comes from a microscopic roundworm that feeds in the buds. Infected leaves show dark bands between the veins and turn thick and leathery, and trees of any age can die within two to seven years. No treatment is proven, though injections and phosphite drenches are being tested on yard trees. Never move beech seedlings, soil or leaves out of an area where beech leaf disease is found. ## Sources - [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: American Beech, Carl H. Tubbs and David R. Houston 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/american-beech) - [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Fagus grandifolia, Milo Coladonato 1991](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/faggra/all.html) - [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Fagus chapter, Bonner and Leak](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Fagus.pdf) - [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Fagus grandifolia](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500645) - [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Fagus grandifolia](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/fagus-grandifolia/) - [The Morton Arboretum: American beech](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/american-beech/) - [The Morton Arboretum: Beech leaf disease](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/tree-plant-care/plant-care-resources/beech-leaf-disease/) - [USDA Forest Service Pest Alert R9-PR-001-21, Beech Leaf Disease, revised May 2024, copy hosted by the Maine Forest Service](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/downloads/US-Forest-Service-Pest-Alert-Beech-Leaf-Disease.pdf) - [Penn State Extension: Beech Leaf Disease, updated March 6, 2024](https://extension.psu.edu/beech-leaf-disease) - [Maine Forest Service: Beech Leaf Disease](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/invasive_threats/beech_leaf_disease.htm) - [Beckman, Meyer, Pivorunas, Hoban and Westwood 2021, Conservation Gap Analysis of American Beech, The Morton Arboretum with the USDA Forest Service](https://www.mortonarb.org/app/uploads/2021/05/conservation_gap_analysis_of_american_beech.pdf) - [Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder: Fagus grandifolia](https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a865) - [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Fagus grandifolia](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=FAGR) - [Virginia Tech Dendrology: American beech fact sheet](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=47) - [Trees and Shrubs Online, International Dendrology Society: Fagus grandifolia, Grimshaw and Christian 2021](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/fagus/fagus-grandifolia/) - [NatureServe Explorer: Fagus grandifolia](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.140235/Fagus_grandifolia) ## Read before planting - [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md) - [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md) - [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md) - [Beech leaf disease: the striped leaves, how far it has spread, and whether to plant beech now](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/beech-leaf-disease/index.html.md) - [Mast years: why oaks, hickories and beech bear a huge crop one fall and almost none the next](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/mast-years/index.html.md) - [Six trees not to plant near a house, and what to plant instead](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md) ## Related - [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Beech, add ?species=american-beech with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=american-beech&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average. - [Companion species for American Beech](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-beech): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard. - [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=american-beech - [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Beech is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=american-beech - [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Beech needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=american-beech:2 - [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Beech flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.