Copper Beech

Copper Beech
Fagus sylvatica Atropurpurea Group
Genus: Fagus
Species: sylvatica
Cultivar: Atropurpurea Group ...

25. Copper Beech
(Fagus sylvatixa f. purpurea)
Other Common Names: European Beech, Common Beech
Family: Fagaceae ...

Copper beech trees can be propagated by grafting to maintain the colour of the leaves.
Copper beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Atropunicea') at Kew Gardens (Image: Andrew McRobb, RBG Kew)
Species Information ...

Purple Beech, Copper Beech
Beech's common name comes from a Saxon word meaning book. The smooth, light gray bark was once used like paper, and the wood used to make tablets. The trees' lofty, rounded crowns reach 50 to 100 feet tall and wide.

Purple Beech, Copper Beech FA-gus sil-VAT-i-ka
Purple leaf clone of Fagus sylvatica. Upon emergence, leaves are very purple but they become more green during the growing season.

Fern-Leafed Copper Beech [English]: Fagus sylvatica 'Rohanii'
Fern-Leafed Copper Beech [English]: Fagus sylvatica 'Rohan Trompenburg'
Fern-Leaved Banksia [English]: Banksia oblongifolia
Fern-Leaved Beech [English]: Fagus sylvatica 'Asplenifolia' ...

Those found on the inner slopes of Frost Amphitheater are copper beeches, a horticultural variety of the European beech.

The three most readily available cultivars of copper beech are F. s. 'Atropunicea', 'Riversii' and F. s. forma purpurea.

Fagus sylvatica 'Atropurpurea' ('Atropunicea'): copper beech - With its copper red to brownish-black foliage, this cultivar is commonly seen on the American east coast and in western Canada. Smooth gray bark, ovate-elliptical leaves.

sylvatica with deep-purple leaves (often known as Copper Beech). The color can be deep-purple to approaching black in spring and early summer, but it may fade slightly as the season progresses.

Anthocyanins are red or purple pigments produced as by-products of photosynthesis. In some plants, such as copper beech, anthocyanins dominate, producing purplish-coloured leaves.

Rohani Beech; aka,
Purple Oakleaf Beech; aka,
Rohan European Sawtooth Beech; aka,
Fern Leafed Copper Beech ...

The Copper Beech is a little paler and more coppery than the old purple Beech, and there is a weeping form as well as a dark purple. These dark colored forms should not be used too freely-one to three purple Beeches in each parish are ample.

See also: Beech, Green, Fagus sylvatica, May, European beech