Simply..fagus sylvatica....

9/5/2015

I know it sounds like I'm showing off, but I like the latin names!

I also like that I know the latin names so I guess I am showing off.

A bit. (See this post.)

You have to admit It just sounds better than beech. Grander, more elegant, more special. (Fagus Latin for beech, sylvatica of wood or forest.)

I've been watching these few trees for the last weeks as they unfurl their delicious looking lime green leaves - they create a bright patch in the forest even on the dullest day.

Are there any fagus sylvatica near you? Or betula, salix, quercus, or trochodiospermum arachiasumoides subra? (Birch, willow, oak, and I just made that up :-)

There is a point at which if you pick a branch of beech in bud, the double leaves will open along it like green butterflies...I only managed this effect once, but it was magical.

10 Comments

elaine link

9/5/2015 04:27:48 pm

I used to know all the Latin names of the plants in my garden as I used to read a lot of gardening books - not so much now - my memory lets me down - sometimes I can't even remember the common names - oh dear! Beautiful pictures of the beech with the sunlight shining through the leaves.

Freda

10/5/2015 07:30:30 am

I can't always recall them when I want to - then remember them later!

juli

9/5/2015 06:39:14 pm

i find your knowledge, that you so freely share with us, inspires me to look things up and learn more, freda...which is what i just did....so now i know that my neighbor's copper beech is actually a fagus sylvatica...:-)
then i wondered about our own american beech that we have at the cottage..was it the same or different? and it is indeed different...it is fagus grandifolia....your post gave me questions...and i found answers..:-) next, i want to find out if our fagus grandifolia ould give us butterfly leaves also...-)

Freda

10/5/2015 07:36:54 am

I've been at my books too - just love looking things up. Our common beech has leaves mostly in pairs (for the butterfly effect) but sometimes in threes. The branches which broke out in butterflies for us had only pairs all the way along. I wonder if grandiflora will do the same!

cath

10/5/2015 01:53:52 am

There's birch, willow - the one I adopted three years ago - beech, oak,
alder and linden - that's where my last name comes from- close by. Possibly more, still to learn about.

Freda

10/5/2015 07:42:38 am

I do like alder especially when it has cones and catkins on at the same time. And I remember the linden trees in Berlin in particular - a lovely name (mine means forest apple). Nice to be named after trees isn't it!

Madeleine

10/5/2015 07:09:49 am

Beautiful photos, thank you. We have many oak trees in my area, and an incredible avenue of Elms lines the road leading into our University. I must drive up there soon as it's Autumn, and those trees are one of my favourite sights. Right outside my front gate is an absolutely stunning tree in it's full Autumn glory, and I actually don't know what sort of tree it is as it's not one that was grown where I grew up - I must find out!

Madeleine.x

Freda

10/5/2015 07:46:13 am

As you probably know in UK we lost all our elms to Dutch elm disease some years ago - it made a huge difference to the landscape. I do forget it is autumn with you! Enjoy the colours!

Sarah link

15/5/2015 04:26:43 am

I enjoyed reading about the story of how you became interested in plant names! We too were out in the woods enjoying the sight of the fresh green leaves of the fagus sylvatica . It looked so good with a carpet of bluebells.
Sarah x

jFreda

16/5/2015 12:42:18 pm

The perfect combination.

Simply..fagus sylvatica....

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