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
Beech transferred to the oak tree (e.g. Iliad 16.767) as a result of the absence of beech trees in Greece. Beech grows on a wide range of soil types, acidic or basic, provided they are not waterlogged. The tree canopy casts dense shade, and carpets the ground thickly with leaf litter. In North America, they often form beech-maple climax forests by partnering with the sugar maple. The beech blight aphid ("Grylloprociphilus imbricator") is a common pest of American beech trees. Beeches are also used as food plants by some species of Lepidoptera. Beech bark is extremely thin and scars easily. Since