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What's new in nature?
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Most trees are difficult to identify in the winter except by experts. Young beech trees standout in mid-winter and can often be spotted while driving along the road. Beech leaves cling to the smooth barked trees even after the leaves die in the fall. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - Winter time presents the nature lover an opportunity to see and find some things that are more difficult to locate or identify during the growing season.
Young beech trees blend into the forest understory during the summer months, but in the winter the same trees can often be spotted while driving down the road. Beech trees like to hang onto their leaves long after those leaves die and turn brown in the fall.
The light brown beech leaves on the spreading branches standout in the stark, bare winter woodland, especially when rays of bright sunshine penetrate to the forest floor. While a couple of other trees, such as some oaks, keep dead leaves into winter, the darker, larger and more irregularly shaped leaves of oaks are easy to distinguish from the light brown, small, oblong leaves of beech trees.
 | | The smooth, lightgray bark of beech trees are a favorite place for people to carve initials and romantic hearts. But people aren't the only ones who prize the trees. This tree has been gnawed by a beaver near the base and scratched about six feet up by a bear. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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Beech trees are shade tolerant. Young trees and saplings can grow for many years in the mixed forest of the Highlands waiting for the chance demise of an overshadowing neighbor. Once given an open path to the sky, a beech tree can create a large, spreading and impressive crown.
Many people say beech nuts are the most flavorful of the native forest nuts. Like the equally prized shag bark hickory nut, finding a ripe, edible beech nut is more difficult than getting past the leathery covering.
Squirrels and other animals seem to know the moment the nuts ripen. Often, the nuts remaining on the ground by the time humans find the trees all turn out to be devoid of nut meat. Somehow the animals know which nuts are good and which aren't worth the time.
Beech trees have very smooth, light gray bark that makes them a favorite target of people who like to carve names and initials to mark their passing through nature. The disfigured beech generally heals around the wounds leaving the graffiti to last as long as the strong tree lives.
Occasionally a rutting buck will use a young beech to clean the velvet from its antlers also scarring the tree. Even bears stretching and sharpening claws will mark a tree with scratches that remain for many years.
Finding beech trees in winter can lead to a couple of wildflower treats. Beech drops, Epifagus virginiana, is a parasite that grows only on the roots of beech trees. The pretty little flowers appear in late summer. Winter is a good time to spot likely trees to check out later.
Crane-fly orchid, Tipularia discolor, also likes the deep shade of beech trees. While it isn't found only under beech trees or near all beech trees, a beech grove is a good place to look. The bonus for the winter naturalist is the leaves of crane-fly orchid. The leaf of this orchid comes up in the fall, one per plant, lives through the winter and dies back in the spring months before the flower stem will appear.
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