Fagus silvatica - beech family

Beech is a very demanding species of tree
– it is found only in temperate regions. 

Beech wood, due to its properties, is successfully used in the hardwood flooring and furniture industries (mostly for bentwood furniture) and for the production of musical instruments. The fruit of the beech tree
– the beech-nut – is edible, while oil pressed from the beech-nut is one of the ingredients of margarine. 

There are 10 species of beech, including the European Beech and its varieties commonly found in Poland: purple, cut-leaf and weeping.

Curiosities

• The oldest European Beech in Poland grows in Sieraków in the Poznań Province, and is 327 years old. Its circumference measures 678 cm, while its trunk diameter is 216 cm.
• Beech wood also has its place in the beliefs of ancient Greeks, Romans and Dacians (today’s Romania). As Greek mythology tells us, beech trees grew on Mount Olympus and were inhabited by wise owls. In later Roman mythology, and also in the legends of ancient Dacians, one can find records that speak of the beech tree as the tree of fertility. Dacians had the custom of driving their animals under beeches in hopes that they would receive reproductive power there.
• The ash from beech was often used in the production of cosmetics which were the equivalent of today’s liquid cosmetics. Mixed with goat fat and water, it gave tanned skin a delicate white colour.

Hardness on the Brinell scale: 37 MPa

Change in colour from exposure to sunlight: with time, the colour variation of beech becomes more uniform, approaching an amber colour.

Density: 700kg/m³

Installation over floor heating: not recommended