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 Settlement northeast, and Carthage, southeast. The Indiana Central, which began its service to the area in 1853, had depots at Knightstown and at Charlottesville, about northwest of the settlement. Although Beech Settlement no longer exists, a few significant structures remain, including Mount Pleasant Beech Church, built ca. 1840, and the Walker Jeffries homestead, ca. 1850. Beech Settlement Beech Settlement was a rural settlement in Ripley Township, Rush County, Indiana. Its early settlers were free people of color (most of them migrated from eastern North Carolina and Virginia) and a small number of free blacks, who came to the area with Quakers.