ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of European Beech. The nuts are sweet and edible when roasted. Roasted nuts can be used as a substitute for coffee. Press-cake from decorticated nuts is used as a feed for cattle, pigs, and poultry. Oil expressed from nuts is used for cooking, illumination, and manufacture of soap. Reported to be carminative, poison, analgesic, antidote, antipyretic, antiseptic, apertif, astringent, laxative, parasiticide, refrigerant, and tonic, European beech is a folk remedy for blood disorders and fever. The beech nuts are not a commercial item, but are especially valuable as food for wildlife. Trees form extensive forests, and the wood is a common hardwood tree in Denmark and Germany, where it is raised as pure growth or as mixed woodland. Nurseries propagate large numbers for ornamentals.
