Beech cupules. The husk can have a variety of spine- to scale-like appendages, the character of which is, in addition to leaf shape, one of the primary ways beeches are differentiated. The nuts are edible, though bitter (though not nearly as bitter as acorns) with a high tannin content, and are called beechnuts or beechmast. The name of the tree (Latin "fagus", whence the species name; cognate with English "beech") is of Indo-European origin, and played an important role in early debates on the geographical origins of the Indo-European people. Greek φηγός is from the same root, but the word was
Nellie's tree as "the tree" in the singular form it is actually three separate beech trees that have been grafted together. Around 1920 a young miner and keen amateur gardener, Vic Stead, resided in Garforth. He regularly made the trip to Aberford by foot along the "Fly-line", a disused colliery railway, to see his girlfriend Nellie who worked there as a dairy maid. Near to Aberford Stead found three beech saplings growing in a row and grafted the central tree onto the two adjacent ones in a diagonal fashion to form the shape of the capital letter "N". This was intended as