This listing is for 50 X COPPER BEECH FAGUS SYLVATICA ATROPURPUREA SEEDS.

Overview: grows to a height of more than 40m. The bark is smooth, thin and grey, often with slight horizontal etchings. Twigs are slender and grey but not straight - their shape resembles a zig-zag. Torpedo-shaped leaf buds are coppery and up to 2cm in length, with a distinctive criss-cross pattern.

Leaves: coppery to deep purple in colour, oval and fringed with silky brown hairs.

Flowers: monoecious, meaning both male and female flowers grow on the same tree. In April and May the copper beech’s tassel-like male catkins hang from long stalks at the end of twigs, while female flowers grow in pairs, surrounded by a cup.

Fruits: once wind pollinated, this cup becomes woody and encloses one or two reddish brown beech nuts (known as beechmast).

Look out for: the red to purple leaves mark a clear difference from the common beech.

Full sowing and planting instructions go out with each order.