Q: The tall trees in North Georgia are mostly pines and oaks, but beneath the canopy, beech trees seem to be taking over. Is this an invasive species?
—Jock Ellis, Cumming
A: American beech has deep roots in Georgia.
The tree is a native species and has always been around these parts, but many beech trees are smaller than other species because they don’t regenerate well, said Kim D. Coder, professor of tree biology in the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
You can find what he describes as “beech gaps,” which are clumps of beech trees that sit in gaps between hills, as far south as Atlanta and Athens. They extend into the Smoky Mountains.
American beech are among the canopy trees in northeast Georgia’s Blue Ridge area, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division.
Although European settlers eliminated a number of beech gaps, Coder said the tree’s fruit, the triangular beech nut, has been carried by animals and water to other places.
In older, ungrazed forest areas, you’ll see it in the understory, or the area growing beneath the forest canopy.
Beech trees are visible because they don’t lose their leaves, which bleach to a light tan.
“They’re just beautiful as a tree,” he said. “A lot of people like them because they’ve got that light gray bark, a shiny waxy leaf, and the kids like them for a sinister reason. They have a really long pointy bud and brothers and sisters get in pokey fights with these buds. They’ll take a beech bud and poke you with it, and it’s pretty sharp and pointy.”
More beech trees are surviving, he added, as there’s fewer prescribed fires, a practice that seeks to protect against wildfires.
You can check out a 121.7-foot-tall beech tree in the Lullwater Conservation Garden in Druid Hills (it’s been named to Trees Atlanta’s Champions List), but don’t expect all of them to be that tall.
“Those little beeches hang out waiting for a big oak or something to topple over and they fill in the gap. That doesn’t happen very often,” Coder said. “So you see a lot of little ones, but not a lot of big ones.”
Fast Copy News Service’s Lori Johnston contributed to this article.
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