The Mighty Oak V's The Beautiful beech

[Rich Rule]

i do like a nice oak but beech forests are something else.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

loving the root shot, got one very similar

[David Humphries]

Fine subjects there Rich

 

 

 

 

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[Rich Rule]

All the shots were taken just outside Brussels last summer. Mighty fine area.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

 

 

 

 

[Saw-sick Steve]

 

planted en mass together the beech will nurse the oaks and reach maturity and fail sooner than the oaks kick starting the ecological chain of decay and renewal, providing fodder and homes to a great diversity of life that would have to wait another 100 years or so otherwise.

Wrong, on every level. In 30yrs of working in woodland conservation I've NEVER seen any evidence of this. from all points of the compass in the UK. Beech will ALWAYS dominate Oak if given the chance, and the major threat to many Western sessile Oak woods is Beech invasion - greater than the threat of Ponticum.

I could take you to a hundred oak woods where Beech saplings dominate the understorey, but would struggle to find one Beech wood where Oak constituted a significant part of the regeneration. Beech just loves a nice nurse crop of Oak - unfortunately, the reverse just isn't true.

In the past, Beech was kept in check by browsing animals, that control no longer exists in many situations. You've also assumed that the saprophytic community will be the same regardless of the decaying species. Again. Oak supports a greater variety than beech.

If we're talking aesthetics, then that's a whole different argument, but don't put Beech on an ecological par with Oak.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Wrong, on every level. In 30yrs of working in woodland conservation I've NEVER seen any evidence of this. from all points of the compass in the UK. Beech will ALWAYS dominate Oak if given the chance, and the major threat to many Western sessile Oak woods is Beech invasion - greater than the threat of Ponticum.

I could take you to a hundred oak woods where Beech saplings dominate the understorey, but would struggle to find one Beech wood where Oak constituted a significant part of the regeneration. Beech just loves a nice nurse crop of Oak - unfortunately, the reverse just isn't true.

In the past, Beech was kept in check by browsing animals, that control no longer exists in many situations. You've also assumed that the saprophytic community will be the same regardless of the decaying species. Again. Oak supports a greater variety than beech.

If we're talking aesthetics, then that's a whole different argument, but don't put Beech on an ecological par with Oak.

 

I wasnt putting it on Parr, just that it shouldnt be classified as of LOW value ecologicaly.

 

as for the dominace of beech, take a trip to whippendell woods, where the beeches have reached terminal age and are on the way out, falling by the score and leaving a lot of biomass degrading across the woodland.

 

Interesting viewpoint you have, and I do appreciate the input, and maybe your right, but in my wood, when the beeches fall, they are quickly replaced by ash predominantly, ashridge however is different again. Every woodland is different in my experience?

[slasherscot]

you just have to look at the pictures above, where the beech is en mass theres nothing growing under bar beech regen, no ground flora or shrubs, i am all for the odd beech but i dont want to kick beech leaves around the woodland floor

[Blaisey]

Heres my favourite oak near my house u can climb right up the inside. A few year ago it was nearly dead them quite by accident the dumped a couple of loads of manure round it and of she went again.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Heres my favourite oak near my house u can climb right up the inside. A few year ago it was nearly dead them quite by accident the dumped a couple of loads of manure round it and of she went again.

 

Wicked post fella, and what a tree.

 

also slasher

 

 

Just because you cant see life doesnt mean it isnt there!

 

I cant prove it but i bet there is more soil fauna under an ancient beech than oak, due to the more acidic leaf fall of oak?

 

not only that but a great many rare and splendid things prefer beech to anything else, the hericiums just for a start, the olive oysterling too.

 

please correct me with scientific evidance, i welcome this as i can learn from it.