Weeping beech measure in length. Flowers appear in the spring and are inconspicuous. The beechnuts sit in a thin spiny husk and are less than 5 cm in diameter. The triangular beech nuts are popular in autumn with birds, mice and squirrels. The green leaves become copper-toned in the fall. In winter the skeleton of the silvery stem with its branches remains attractive. The purple pigment in the leaves acts like a sunscreen to protect its new leaves, which is particularly important for plants that grow at high altitudes where the sun is fierce. The tree is not native to North America
The Copper Beech The Copper Beech The Copper Beech is a 1992 novel by Irish author Maeve Binchy. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, the plot follows the lives of 12 different characters living in a small Irish town, in chapters with interlocking plot elements. The novel follows the lives of a group of young people in the small Irish town of Shancarrig, most of them graduates of the stone schoolhouse on the hill where they engraved their initials on a large copper beech tree. Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters, although the plot details often reappear