Tree Information

Common Name: European beech

Scientific Name: Fagus sylvatica

Native/Naturalized: Naturalized

Database ID: 2642

Status: alive

National Champion: no

Virginia Champion: yes

Circumference: 174 in.

Height: 84 ft.

Crown: 69 ft.

Points: 275

Date Last Measured: 2019

Last Measured by: Eric Wiseman, Jason Sprouls, Seth Ramsay, Erika Wright

Date First Measured: 2019

Comments: Tree is in good health. The trunk forks into co-dominant leaders about 8' above ground. On the east side of the lower trunk is a lesion that developed around the seam of bark inclusion from the co-dominant leaders. There is some decay in the lesion, but it is not evident whether a pathogenic fungus is associated with the lesion. There is moderate woundwood development around the edge of the lesion, so the prognosis for the tree is fair to good. No other evidence of structural instability or threats to the tree.

The church cemetery was established in 1868. The tree likely dates to the late 19th or early 20th century.

These dark-foliage trees are interchangeably referred to as copper beech or purple leaf beech. The taxonomy used by horticulturists is varied and there is no information to assign this specimen to a particular group. Botanical names used interchangeably include 'Cuprea' (copper), 'Purpurea' (purple), 'Atropurpurea' (copperish-purple). Origin of the naturally occurring variety traces back to 1772 in the Hanleiter Forest of the German state of Thuringia.

Trunk circumference was taken based on a ground reference off of the root plate on the natural soil grade at 8' to the southwest of the trunk.