Some kind of beech (fagus)

This post was edited by Huggorm on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 17:04

beech .... fagus ??? though i admit.. i have no idea if they 'do' atlanta ...

have you seen them in the growing season?? ... if purple leaved .. then copper beech ...

compare at link

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

Thanks, both. Doing a little research on beech trees, I think the American Beech is what I've been seeing. I was thrown off because the books I read said American Beeches get very tall, but all of the trees I've noticed were quite small. Thanks to Ken's link, I found a web page that explained that younger trees are more likely to keep their leaves all winter. So, I'm concluding that there are probably plenty of much taller beeches around, but I haven't recognized them because they have dropped all their leaves. Bottom line is that this is not a good tree to plant under a big maple in my front yard! So, thanks again!

Yes, definitely American beech, a young one.

Could be a Musclewood?...

"I was thrown off because the books I read said American Beeches get very tall, but all of the trees I've noticed were quite small."

American beech is very slow. I've been watching one in the suburbs of Washington, DC, since my teens. It's in the garden of some friends of parents. It was maybe 6' 20 years ago, and is now maybe 25' at most, if not just 20'. No more than 1 ft. per year. Likewise some in the woods near my house seem to have grown only slightly since I bought in the mid 2000s. Though it may depend on the individual clone, the soils, and shade. All of these I mention are shaded; in the case of the local trees they are secondary successional as the maples and cherries die off, and will probably start growing faster soon.

Some Beach,...some where...

Love that song!

Yup! Definitely, an American Beech. You'll definitely see the young ones as understory trees. The biggest I see are along creeks and in "old growth" forests. The youngsters keep their golden leaves for the majority of the winter.