tree of the month Belfast Botanic Gardens

Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens

Tree of the month series - this series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is compiled by members of the Friends group and Gardens staff. We aim to build up to a comprehensive archive of trees in Belfast Botanic Gardens. Each article will illustrate a tree growing in Belfast Botanic Gardens together with information from a range of sources. Entries are archived here in alphabetical order of latin name.

Click here to view the tree archive

Tree of the Month, July 2009

Fagus sylvatica var. heterophylla 'Asplenifolia'

(also in print as F. sylvatica 'Heterophylla' and F. sylvatica 'Asplenifolia')

fern-leaved beech

Jonathan Pilcher

The fern-leaved beech is a variety or sport of the common beech. It makes a large tree to 25m as the two fine examples in the Belfast Botanic Garden show. The leaves are vary variable, but always more dissected than those of the species. Fern-leaved beech is said to commonly produce some normal beech leaves, although the Botanic Gardens trees don't seem to show this characteristic.On the tips of branches some leaves may be very narrow and linear almost like a willow leaf whereas other leaves may look more like an oak leaf.- see below. The flowers are the same as the species and bark is smooth and silvery grey also like the species. According to some authorities the fern leaved beech is a chimaera; that is it combines the tissues of two different plants without being a true genetic hybrid of the two. Usually the inner tissues are of one and the outer tissues are of another - in this case the inner tissues are of the true beech and the outer tissues are of the sport.


One of two large fern-leaved beeches seen from ouside Botanic School	feathery branches of fern-leaved beech in Belfast Botanic Gardens

typical leaf of fern-leaved beech	leaves from branch tips of fern-leaved beech

Male flowers of fern-leaved beech	Trunk of fern-leaved beech