Description
Fagus orientalis – Oriental beech
Short description: The Oriental beech from the Caucasus and Asia Minor is the faster-growing and more drought-tolerant sister of the European beech – with slightly larger, glossier foliage and more vigorous growth. In autumn it glows in warm golden yellow and orange. As a specimen tree or forest tree, it is a promising alternative to European beech on warmer and drier sites where the latter is increasingly suffering from climate stress.
- More drought-tolerant European beech
- Timber use like European beech
- Edible oil can be pressed from the fruit for use
- Better beech species in climate change
- 40 m mature height
- Heart-rooted
- Also copes with strongly acidic or alkaline soils
- Shade-tolerant + highly competitive
Climatic characteristics & site conditions: The Oriental beech tolerates heat and drought significantly better than the native European beech – a decisive advantage given the increasingly dry summers in the Upper Rhine Plain, the Stuttgart region and Franconia. It prefers deep, fresh to moderately dry soils on an acidic to neutral base. It tolerates calcareous sites better than European beech. Hardy down to –25 °C. Highly interesting as a climate-change tree species for the warmer beech sites of southern Germany.
Advantages: More drought-tolerant than European beech, faster growth, attractive autumn foliage, more lime-tolerant, impressive habit, future-proof climate-change tree species.
Disadvantages: Not native – lower ecological value than European beech, requires a lot of space, rare in trade, no permanently waterlogged soils, still little tested in Germany.
