name: Beech Nut

flavor_db_name_variants: beech nut

source: foodb

status: draft

food_db_id: Beech nut

id: 299

name_scientific: Fagus

description: Beech (Fagus) is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America. Recent classification systems of the genus recognize ten to thirteen species in two distinct subgenera, Engleriana and Fagus. The Engleriana subgenus is found only in East Asia, and is notably distinct from the Fagus subgenus in that these beeches are low-branching trees, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. Further differentiating characteristics include the whitish bloom on the underside of the leaves, the visible tertiary leaf veins, and a long, smooth cupule-peduncle. Fagus japonica, Fagus engleriana, and the species F. okamotoi, proposed by the bontanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, comprise this subgenus. The more well-known Fagus subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. This group includes Fagus sylvatica, Fagus grandifolia, Fagus crenata, Fagus lucida, Fagus longipetiolata, and Fagus hayatae. The European beech (Fagus sylvatica) is the most commonly cultivated, although there are few important differences between species aside from detail elements such as leaf shape. The leaves of beech trees are entire or sparsely toothed, from 5?15 cm long and 4?10 cm broad. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The bark is smooth and light grey. The fruit is a small, sharply three?angled nut 10?15 mm long, borne singly or in pairs in soft-spined husks 1.5?2.5 cm long, known as cupules. The husk can have a variety of spine- to scale-like appendages, the character of which is, in addition to leaf shape, one of the primary ways beeches are differentiated. The nuts are edible, though bitter (though not nearly as bitter as acorns) with a high tannin content, and are called beechnuts or beechmast.

itis_id: 19461

wikipedia_id: Beech

picture_file_name: 301.jpg

picture_content_type: image/jpeg

picture_file_size: 29680

picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:43:07.000Z

legacy_id: 328

food_group: Nuts

food_subgroup: Nuts

food_type: Type 1

created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:31.000Z

updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:04:22.000Z

creator_id: null

updater_id: null

export_to_afcdb: false

category: specific

ncbi_taxonomy_id: 21024

export_to_foodb: true

public_id: FOOD00299