Fagus spp. of the family Fagaceae and Nothofagus spp. of the family Nothofagaceae including at least the following, with some of the associated common names. The Nothofagus species used to included in the Fagus species but they have been broken out (due to genetic differences) into not only their own genera (Nothofagus) but have also been give their own family name (Nothofagaceae). This set of species has many "beech" common names because of the former association. I am not familiar enough with the two genera to say whether or not there is any easy way for the casual observer to distinguish between them but in any event, they are included on this page.
F. crenata (Japanese, siebold's)
F. engleriana (Chinese)
F. grandifolia (American, Carolina, red, stone, white, winter)
F. longipetiolata (Chinese)
F. moesiaca (Yugoslavian)
F. multinervis (Korean)
F. orientalis (Eastern, oriental)
F. purpurea (purple)
F. sieboldii (Japanese)
F. sylvatica (aisatic, carpathian, copper, English, European, Japanese, Turkish, and MANY other country names)
N. alpina (chilean)
N. antarctica (antarctic, southern)
N. betuloides (chilean, guindo)
N. carrii (new guinea)
N. cliffortioides (new zealand mountain)
N. cunninghamii (antarctic, mountain, silver)
N. dombeyi (south american, chilean)
N. fusca (new zealand)
N. grandis (new guinea)
N. gunnii (deciduous)
N. menziesii (new zealand, silver)
N. moorei (antarctic, australian black, southern)
N. obliqua (antarctic)
N. papuanum (new guinea)
N. perryi (new guinea)
N. procera (antarctic, chilean)
N. pumilio (south american)
N. solandri (australian black, mountain)
N. truncata (grey)
According to wikipedia, there are only 10 Fagus species of beech, so I may have them all but there are very many more species in the genus Nothofagus than what I have listed
NOTE: In addition to the species of the genera Fagus and Nothofagus, there are ANOTHER 80 or so species of a large number of other genera that have the word beech as all or part of one or more of their common names, SO ... "beech" is not always a very helpful designation, but I do believe that most of the pics on this page are from the genus Fagus just because that's what North American vendors have.
With beech, the wide light-colored sapwood is more used than the darker heartwood. The primary way to ID beech is that it pretty much always has lots of fairly evenly spaced small, short, elongated "dots" shown on flat cut or rift cut (not quartersawn) surfaces, like this:
these are the narrow rays typical of beech and of course on quartersawn surfaces, they show up a ray flakes --- often moderately long, but always very narrow.
Quartersawn surfaces often show nice ray flakes that sometimes seem surprizingly large, given the small size of what shows on the flat cut surfaces.
my samples --- many of my veneer pics have too much red & need to be fixed. The planks have accurate color except as noted
both sides of a rift cut sample plank of American beech / Fagus grandifolia
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of American beech / Fagus grandifolia --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
sample plank and end grain of a piece sold to me as American beech / Fagus grandifolia
both sides of a sample plank of European purple leaved beech / Fagus sylvatica, subspecies purpurea --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a flat cut sample plank of steamed European beech / Fagus sylvatica
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the closeup is too red
both sides of a sample plank of rauli (Chilean beech) / Nothofagus alpina --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of guindo beech (Chilean beech) / Nothofagus betuloides --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
both sides of a sample plank of quartersawn Japanese beech / Fagus crenata --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Note that this piece is perfectly quartersawn which mean that the ray flakes on the face are quite large (for beech)
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above --- it's interesting to note the occasional very strong, and fairly long, ray mixed in with the more plentiful thinner and shorter ones.
both sides and both ends of a sample piece of beech (no species specified)
both sides of a small piece --- HUGE enlargements are present
end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
some small pieces of beech (no species specified) from different trees (as you can see by the differences in ring counts in the end grain pics --- big enlargements are present for this pic and the ones below
face grain closeups of some of the pieces directly above
end grain closeups of some of the pieces directly above
European beech plank and end grain
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
European beech plank and end grain
both sides of a small plank of European beech. Huge enlargements are present for both this and all of the pics below of this piece.
end grain of the piece directly above
end grain closeups of the piece directly above
face grain closeups of the piece directly above
flat cut side grain closeup and rift cut side grain closeup of the piece directly above
this is a quartersawn edge surface at a natual split line before I cleaned up the piece directly above and it nicely shows the way quartersawn pieces will split on the rays.
both sides of a piece of European beech with white rot. Huge enlargements are present for both this and all of the pics below of these pieces.
both end grains of the piece directly above
end grain closeups of the piece directly above
flat cut surface closeups of the piece directly above
quartersawn edge closeup of the piece directly above
two quartersawn edge surfaces at a natual split line before I cleaned up the piece directly above and they nicely show the way quartersawn pieces will split on the rays.
a couple of small pieces from the white rot section as the larger piece directly above. The visible surfaces are quartersawn for the upper piece and rift cut for the lower piece Huge enlargements are present for both this and all of the pics below of these pieces.
quartersawn surface closeups from the upper piece directly above
rift cut surface closeups of the lower piece directly above
several views of some beech that Gerry Fey salvaged from an old building. He worked the wood and sent me these excellent pics of the results. I have confidence that the colors are quite accurate, as they are identical to some of the beech veneer that I have.
both sides and both ends of a sample piece of very lightly spalted beech
end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- this pic is too gray, should be more yellow/tan
The next several spalted beech planks were donated to the site by Rich Kopitsch whom I thank for this and other contributions.
spalted beech plank
spalted beech plank
spalted beech planks
spalted beech plank
both sides of a pair of spalted beech planks cut from the larger ones above and sanded down for the pics.
end grain of the two planks directly above
end grain closeups of the two planks directly above
spalted plank --- extreme enlargments are present. This pic, and the enlargments below, were provided by John Fuher, whom I thank for this and many other contributions to the site. These pics were taken in direct sunlight.
face grain closeups of the plank directly above --- extreme enlargments are present
end grain closeups of the plank directly above --- extreme enlargments are present
flat cut veneer
flat cut veneer and closeup
veneer, rift cut
quartersawn flaky veneer, with too much red tint in the pics
quartersawn flaky veneer --- this one goes all the way up to a second enlargement so you can really see these heavy flakes up close
quartersawn flaky veneer with a knothole, showing some interesting curly figure
steamed european veneer
steamed european flakey beech veneer --- the wood isn't quite as shiny as this picture makes it look
flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
beech (Fagus ferruginea) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views
web pics --- it seems unlikely that all of the colors are accurate
planks with wet and dry sections; the first one is rift cut and was listed as Fagus sylvatica and the other two are flat cut
planks
plank showing some rot in the pith area
plank listed as haya / F. sylvatica
quartersawn planks with ray flakes
European "lace" planks. "Lace" appears to be a designation meaning quartersawn flaky with stong ray flakes
AH ... WELL ... no, actually what it means is that I'm careless --- this is not beech at all. As correspondant Jean Turner pointed out, it is actually sycamore.
I've left it here as a reminder to myself be more careful.
flaky veneer --- the color on these is way off --- the wood is tan, not green. See my own sample of flaky veneer for a better representation of the color.
turning blocks
bowl turning blank
bowl blank listed as American beech
veneer
quartersawn veneer
steamed veneer
rotary cut veneer --- grain shows up better on enlargement
white beech
American beech --- color seems totally unlikely
"unsteamed" veneer
curly veneer
veneer pictures with hilarious color !!! Every now and then I just HAVE to include one of these silly shots to show what you sometimes find on the Internet.
steamed European planks
end grain listed as European beech / Fagus sylvatica
European beech planks
two views of a plank listed as European beech. I don't know what the white spots are but assume they are either spalting or white rot. I have some very similar pieces up the in own samples (in fact I think they came from the owner of this plank) and they show great detail.
closeups of the European beech plank directly above
planks listed as European beech / Fagus sylvatica
European rift cut veneer
curly European beech
European beech veneer
European flat cut curly veneer
European flat cut veneer
European curly beech veneer
European figured veneer
European quartersawn figured veneer
European quartersawn veneer
European quartersawn mottled veneer
European quartersawn veneer, not listed as mottled but clearly is
"European steamed quartersawn" beech
european steamed veneer and a closeup of the same sheet --- clearly one of the colors is wrong, possibly both.
steamed European beech veneer --- both levels of enlargement are available; I doubt the pinkish color --- the actual wood is probably more tan
European steamed veneer, all from the same vendor
European steamed veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement. These are from the same vendor as the set directly above.
steamed European veneer
unsteamed european veneer, all from the same vendor
unsteamed European veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement. These are from the same vendor as the set directly above.
"European white" beech
wormy beech veneer
bowl
8" diameter bowl by Steve Earis
spalted beech & products
spalted beech
spalted English beech
bowl made from spalted English beech
spalted beech bowls with light finish
spalted beech bowls (raw)
spalted beech bowls ... not sure if it's raw and polished or has a finish
spalted beech bowl ... not sure if it's raw or finished
spalted beech bowl by Steve Earis, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.
spalted beech bowl with finish
spalted beech bowl by John Fuher, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. John tells me the spalting process (which IS a form of rot after all) noticibly reduced the density of the wood compared to non-spalted planks, and since he did not use a stabilizer on the wood before turning, he had some trouble with the black-line spores discoloring the surrounding wood on his first attempt at turning this wood. Thanks to John's excellent photography, HUGE enlargements are present for all 3 pics.
spalted urn
end spalted section
pen made from European beech with white rot by Harry Mathew, whom I thank for the pic. This wood is from the same plank as the pieces up in my own samples towards the top of the page. Huge enlargements are present, thanks to Harry's excellent photography.
bowl
beech bowl with both spalt (the dark areas) and white rot (the white and missing areas)
3 sets of pics, each of a bowl and a closeup. I shot these indoors at a craft store and the color came out too orange. I've corrected it as much as I could but it is still a little too orange in each of them (the closeups are somewhat better). Another one that I shot with the flash on came out much better for true color, and it's directly below
bowl and closeup, with correct color (unlike the ones directly above, which are too orange)
another bowl, also shot with the flash and with correct color
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