In Southern Sweden (“vresboken”), Denmark (“vrange boge”), Northern Germany (“Suentelbuche”), and France (“fau de Verzy”), we find a rare cultivar of the European beech, the so-called dwarf beech. These trees are characterized by twisted and contorted branches with pendulous ends. Dwarf beeches grow more in width than in height and rarely reach a height of more than 15 m. Until the 19th century, dwarf beech forests existed at several places, but were cleared as the wood could not be used economically. Today, only about a thousand isolated specimens are left in Europe.
Various ideas exist about the origin of dwarf beeches. In the old days, they were considered enchanted or tainted by the devil. Later on, it has been tried to draw a connection to soil condition, microclimate, and even radioactive ground water. Modern science has established that the growth form of dwarf beeches is an inherited defect and rooted in a genetic mutation. However, many details are still unknown, especially the clustered occurrence remains a mystery.
Read more: http://www.dfwr.de/download/DFWR_beech_forests.pdf
Thomas Jagau