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= Dwarf Beech =

The Dwarf Beech, Fagus sylvatica var. Suentelensis Schelle (1903) syn. Fagus sylvatica var. Tortuosa Willkomm (1887), also known as Twisted Beech or Parasol Beech, is a rare variety of the European Beech (Fagus sylvatica).

Dwarf Beeches impress with their twisted, scrubby and grown together branches as well as their short, spiral-grown trunks. They grow to a larger width than height. Only rarely a height of 15 m is reached. With their sagging twigs Dwarf Beeches form tent like, hemisphere- or mushroom-shaped tree crowns. Their growth shape is inherited, but its origin unknown.

Etymology
The German name Süntel-Buche comes from the Süntel massif in Weserbergland (Lower Saxony).

Depending on location, Dwarf Beeches are called with different botanical names like Tortuosa, Suntalensis and Suentelensis, as well as with trivial names like Krause Buche, Krüppel-Buche, Schirm-Buche, Schlangen-Buche and Renk-Buche. In the past they were also known as Hexenholz and Teufels-Buche, because it was said they were spoiled by the devil. Especially the many growth variations contribute to this non-uniform naming.

Distribution
The Süntel is a small massif to the north of Hamelin in Lower Saxony. Until the middle of the 19th century, Europe's largest Dwarf Beech forest was found there. During the land consolidation in 1843 the whole area, the 245 m high Westeregge between Hülsede and Raden, was cleared. At this time the number of Dwarf Beeches in Germany was lowered from a few thousand to less than one hundred. Today only at around 50 places single old trees or small groves are found. During the last decades numerous new plantings were added.

Germany's largest Dwarf Beeches are in Gremsheim near Bad Gandersheim (the landmark "Kopfbuche"), in Berggarten Hannover and in Lauenau at the Deister. In Bad Nenndorf at the Deister is a Dwarf Beech alley with nearly 100 trees, of which two thirds originated from root sprout.

The Wiehen Hills are a natural habitat of Dwarf Beeches as well. A well-known Dwarf Beech tree called Krause Buche because of its noticeable growth is found at Eidinghauser Berg. A second smaller beech is said to grow nearby. This occurrence justifies the hypothesis that the Dwarf Beech was once widespread from the Süntel and the Weserkette to the Wiehen Hills. The german name Süntel-Buche is not wrong, though, because in the past the ridge of Wiehen Hills, Weserkette and Süntel were officially called Süntel.

Smaller groups of older Dwarf Beeches are found in France ("Hêtre tortillard"), Denmark ("Vrange bøge") and Sweden ("Vresboken"). Younger trees by now are found in many of Europe's and the US's parks and botanical gardens.

In the forest of Verzy ("Faux de Verzy"), 25 km to the southeast of Reims, France, was a stand of more than 800 Dwarf Beeches according to a census in 1998. This number has since been slightly reduced. The most beautiful exemplars have been fenced on a circular path in a park-like area and made into a tourist attraction.

Age
The age of Dwarf Beeches is often overestimated because of their knobby growth. Their average age limit is 120 to 160 years. The horizontal and statically inconvenient growth seems to speed up the collapse of old and brittle trees, which is why 300 years are impossible to obtain. Known were only the high ages of the Tilly Beech near Raden in the Auetal (255 years) and the Dwarf Beech in the Castle Grounds of Haus Weitmar in Bochum (270 years).

Growth shapes
The biggest difference from the normal shape is the odd growth of the Dwarf Beech's roots, trunk and branches. Rotary, serpentine, corkscrew, buckling, knee, zigzag or crippled growth were reported on the differently twisted trees. The elephant-foot-like trunks are rarely higher than 2 meters. Occasionally there are, apparently TODO, completely trunk-less "bush shapes".

Additionally, Dwarf Beeches show a slight "weeping form". The twigs in the outer crown area droop, even if not as much as those of the Weeping Beech. By contrast, the twigs in the upper crown center are usually erected, giving the crown a scrubby look.

The tree shape can also be controlled with different refinement techniques, such as standard refinement. The growth of the Dwarf Beech depends on location (rivalry, shadow, nutrients, wind, etc).

Blossoms, leaves, fruit and bark as well as color and hardness of the wood match the species (European Beech). However, leaves and fruit have a wider variation in shape and size than the European Beech. Noticeable is a different arrangement of the buds, occasionally curved buds and double terminal buds on the twig tips as well as a strong tendency of forming root sprout, especially on trees that were transplanted in their youth. The for the species typical TODO is heavily distorted because of the crippled growth. Because of this, single roots come to the surface more often and form root offspring that grow into new and usually long undivided and serpentine-grown trunks.

Previous studies confirm a variety and inconsistency of the Dwarf Beech's genetic features.

Variations
Dwarf Beeches usually vary in growth shape as well as leave shape or leave color. Hybridization with other leaf varieties of the Red Beech was only successful with the Blood Beech. Since 1967 there are Dwarf Beeches with red-colored leaves, the Blood Dwarf Beeches (Fagus sylv. Kultivar 'Tortuosa Purpurea' or Rot-Süntel).

The shape variation of the Dwarf Beech led to a further sub classification, although the results have not satisfied. Several Dwarf Beeches that have obvious variations in habit have received new names, even though the distinct shape could not be recreated and it was not known whether the shape of the sapling would be preserved in adulthood.

Some variations only have a single exemplar. One of these "unique" examples is the flat-crowned tree of Tabuliformis (Tafelbuche) in the Flora Köln, which was described in the Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft (DDG) by Krüssmann in 1939. Another variant species is Horizontalis, which is known as Londal in Denmark and shallowly grows above the floor. The in 1869 originally described Remillyensis from France may be a sub variant of the Dwarf and Weeping Beech.

Other Dwarf Beech variants are Bornyensis, Pagnyensis, Retroflexa, Arcuata, Conglomerata, Umbraculifera, among others. Classification and boundaries are often blurred and controversial.

The secret of the Dwarf Beech
The cause of the Dwarf Beech's mysterious growth is called Secret of the Dwarf Beech. Soil conditions, soil ingredients, radioactive groundwater, climate, radioactive meteors, shape and alignment of the buds, subterranean hollows or "Earth radiation" are said to influence growth shape. There was a hypothesis that only beechnuts growing near "witch's brooms" could grow new Dwarf Beeches. Temporary dehydration of young plants was thought to be the explanation of the cripple growth, but those speculations could not be proved.

Similar beech species
A similar Red Beech subspecies is the Weeping Beech. It is more upright, less twisted and its twigs have more of a pendulous habit. Even dendrologists may not be sure about their relation when Dwarf or Weeping Beeches differ heavily from the standard.

Browsed wood pastures, stormdamaged "Cripple Beeches" at the coast and in the mountains and frequently cut back "Head Beeches", that have their shape from outside impacts and do not hand it down, are not Dwarf Beeches.

The above mentioned growth shapes can occasionally and less distinctly be found in normal beech forests.

Reproduction and breeding
Biologically, the Dwarf Beech is similar to the normal Red Beech. Both can fertilize each other, which makes the Dwarf Beech disliked by forest owners that want to produce recently grown wood.

Dwarf Beeches are cross-fertilizers, so self-fertilization of the monoicous trees is not possible. They have to be fertilized by another tree (normal Red Beech or Dwarf Beech). From the Dwarf Beech's nuts, which are also fertilized by normal Red Beeches whose pollen is abundant in the air, normal Red Beeches, Dwarf Beeches and hybrids evolve in different amounts and without real distinction. In literature the figures for gnarled seedlings vary between 10 and more than 70 percent.

Only after 5 to 10 years it is clear enough whether a seedling is going to become a "real" Dwarf Beech, which means seedlings are rarely found in shops. However, plugs are commonly sold. New plantings of recent decades were mainly done with plugged Dwarf Beeches. Almost only the most handsome trees were cultivated, which can lead to genetic impoverishedness.

Additionally, Dwarf Beeches commonly reproduce through layerings and root sprouts. This happens when above ground branches grow roots or roots grow sprouts.

When planting Dwarf Beeches the slow growth in height (5 to 10 cm per year) as well as the amount of space needed should be considered. The Dwarf Beech, with its low, almost horizontal growing branches and its weeping twigs that almost reach the ground, covers a circle of up to 25 m in diameter with its crown. Therefore waysides and parcel borders are not good locations for Dwarf Beeches.

Economical use
The spiral-grown and curved wood of the Dwarf Beech does not allow any economical use. Because of the spiral-growth it is hard to split it in grain direction with an axe or saw. It is poorly stackable because of the curved growth and even inappropriate as firewood. The value of the Dwarf Beech comes only from its importance as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens.

Well-known exemplars in Germany
Some outstanding Dwarf Beeches that reached high age or especially beautiful growth became well-known and impressing natural monuments, being also mentioned in respective literature.

These are for example the oldest tree of Bochum at Schloss Weitmar, Krause Buche on Wittekindsberg, the Parapluie-Buchen of Erpernburg near Paderborn, the Krausbäumchen of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, the Kanzelbuche on Stromberg, as well as the still existing Dwarf Beeches in the Berggarten in Hannover-Herrenhausen and the Kopfbuche near Gremsheim.

The most well-known exemplar of the Dwarf Beech was the Tilly-Buche (1739–1994) near Raden at the Süntel, which is now found on the emblem of Auetal. Its roots were used in advertising of Lacalut tooth paste, its enormous growth inspired artists in paintings, oil paintings, photographs, fables and poems. For more than a century its unknown origin leaded to partially bold speculations about the formation of the huge beeches.

Such a fascination only comes from important exemplars or bigger groves ("Märchenwald", "Zauberwald", etc). Smaller Dwarf Beeches are not noted better than similar growth shapes of corkscrew hazel, corkscrew acacia, corkscrew larch or zigzag willow. For centuries Dwarf Beech saplings were seen as useless and removed during thinnings of young Red Beech groves.

Dwarf Beeches in France
Dwarf Beeches are for example found in a forest north of Sionne.

Research history
In Pfeils Kritische Blätter für Forst- und Jagdwissenschaft, 19th volume, 1st part, page 223, from 1844, senior forestry official Tilemann of Eschede writes about the "abnormal growth of the beech in Hülseder communal woods, Lauenau in the kingdom of Hannover":

An diesem Berge, sowohl auf der Höhe, als an den Abhängen desselben, befindet sich auf einer Fläche von etwa 600 Morgen ein 100–150-jähriger Buchenbestand, in welchem sämmtliche Stämme einen so äußerst merkwürdigen Wuchs haben, daß es der Mühe werth ist, denselben zu beschreiben; denn es möchte wohl wenige Forstmänner geben, welche einen ähnlichen Wuchs der Buche auf einer so bedeutenden Fläche zu sehen Gelegenheit gehabt haben.

Sämmtliche Stämme sind mehr oder minder so krumm gewachsen, daß aus der ganzen Bestandsmasse, nach meiner Ansicht, nicht 1 Stück gerades Holz in 4-füßigen Scheitlängen gespalten werden kann, und haben eine Kronenbildung, welche der Traueresche ähnlich ist. Es ist nicht möglich, eine getreue Beschreibung dieses merkwürdigen Baumwuchses ohne Zeichnungen zu geben.

In 1844, at the time Tilemann published his report with four drawings he had written in 1842, the last Dwarf Beech forest near Hülsede had already been cleared.

Over the following 160 years numerous writings of botanists and lovers of nature which were full of admiration and perplexity about the mysterious natural phenomenon were released.

Commonly cited were a report of Adolf Oppermann from 1908 containing more than 100 pictures of "Renkbuchen", an illustrated portrayal of the last exemplars growing on the Süntel by W. Wehrhahn from 1902, and a description of Tilly Beech by Cl. Freifrau von Münchhausen from 1911.

The retired professor Friedrich Lange concerned himself intensively with the morphology of Dwarf Beeches in Bad Münder am Deister and at the university of Göttingen from 1966 to 1974. He described structure and growth of the trees as well as the development stages of the uncommon growth forms. However, he couldn't find the actual trigger either. The already proverbial "secret of the Dwarf Beech" remained unresolved.

Professor Franz Gruber from the university of Göttingen investigated growth and age of the largest Dwarf Beeches in 2001 and 2002, contributing to age determination for the in this aspect often overrated trees.

Literature

 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.
 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.
 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.
 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.
 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.
 * The article also includes locations of Dwarf Beeches.