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The dwarf beech, Fagus sylvatica Tortuosa Group, is a rare cultivar of the European Beech with fewer than 1500 older specimens in Europe. It is also known as twisted beech or parasol beech.
It is a wide-spreading tree with distinctive twisted and contorted branches that are quite pendulous at their ends. With its short and twisted trunk the Dwarf Beech grows more in width than height, only seldom reaching a height of more than 15 metres. It sometimes grows from seed and has formed colonies in Sweden (where it is known as "Vresbok"), Denmark ("Vrange bøge"), Germany ("Süntel-Buchen"), France ("Faux de Verzy") and Italy ("Alberi serpente", nel Monte Pollino).
A similar form is the weeping beech ( Fagus sylvatica Pendula Group), which has more pendulous branching.
The largest dwarf beeches in Germany are in Lauenau and in the Berggarten botanical garden in Hanover. In Bad Nenndorf there is a "Dwarf Beech Avenue" made up of almost 100 trees, two-thirds of which are . The "Head Beech" in Bad Gandersheim, which was considered one of the largest dwarf beeches at the beginning of the 21st century (2003), has since largely collapsed despite intensive tree care measures.
Dwarf beeches are also commonly found among the Wiehen Hills. A well known example of this tree species stands today on the Eidinghauser hill and is named "Krause Buche" ("Ruffle Beech") due to its striking growth. A second, smaller beech grows nearby. These trees provide evidence that the dwarf beech was once spread from the Süntel over the Wesergebirge to the Wiehen Hills. Regardless, the German name "Süntelbuche" is not incorrect because formerly the Wiehen Hills, the Wesergebirge, and the Süntel were all officially referred to as "the Süntel".
In a 1998 census of trees a population of more than 800 dwarf beeches was found in the Verzy forest, 25 km southeast of Reims, in France (where the trees are called Faux de Verzy). Since then the number has been reduced slightly. The most beautiful specimens have been separated and have become tourist attractions along a circular path in a park-like area.
The reserve was surveyed with a theodolite. It was possible to precisely record the location of every beech and to number the individual trees. The survey plan became the basis for maintenance work and scientific research.
In addition, dwarf beeches show a slight "mourning form". The branches in the outer crown area droop, but not so strongly as in the weeping beech. The branches in the upper middle part of the crown, on the other hand, are usually erect and give the crown a scruffy appearance.
The tree shape can also be influenced by finishing techniques, for example through "high stem-finishing". The growth of the dwarf beech also depends on location, which affects competition, shade, nutrients, wind, and so on. Flowers, leaves, fruit, and bark, as well as the strength of the wood, correspond with the species (Fagus sylvatica). However, the leaves and fruit show a greater variation in size and shape than in the European beech. Other striking characteristics are the arrangement of the , the occasional curved buds and double terminal buds at the branch tips, and the strong tendency to develop , especially in trees that are transported when young. The typical European beech roots are strongly distorted in the dwarf beech due to its stunted growth. As a result, individual roots come to the surface more often and form basal shoots that grow into new, mostly long, undivided, and snake-growing stems.
For some variations there is only a single example. The flat-crowned tree of the Tabuliformis ( table beech) type in the Flora Botanical Garden in Cologne described by Gerd Krüssmann in 1939 in the Messages of the German Dendrological Society ( Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft) is one such unique example.Gerhard Dönig (2025). 9783000397325, Ortsgruppe Bad Münder des Heimatbundes Niedersachsen e. V.. ISBN 9783000397325 Another divergent form that grows completely flat above ground is the Horizontalis, known as Londal in Denmark. The Remyllyensis form, first described in 1869 and originating in France, could be an intermediate form between the dwarf and weeping beech.
Further dwarf beech forms are ‘Bornyensis’, ‘Pagnyensis’, ‘Retroflexa’, ‘Arcuata’, ‘Conglomerata’, ‘Umbraculifera’, among others. The classification of these forms is unclear and disputed.
Beeches similar in form to dwarf beeches that are not of the same subspecies include browsed "hood beeches", storm-tossed "stunted beeches" on the coast and in the mountains, and often-pruned "head beeches" which owe their dwarf beech-like forms to external influences and do not pass them on. The growth forms mentioned above are isolated and less pronounced in every normal beech forest.
Dwarf beeches are cross-pollinators, which means self-fertilization of these monoicous trees is not possible. They must be fertilized by another tree, either a common European beech or another dwarf beech. Concerning the beechnuts of dwarf beeches, which are always pollinated by common European beeches because their pollen is everywhere in the air, they produce common European beeches, dwarf beeches, and hybrids in different numbers without sharp distinctions between one another. Between 10 and over 70 percent of seedlings are crooked. Only after 5 to 10 years can one see clearly enough whether a young plant is a proper dwarf beech or not. This is why seedlings are very rarely available for purchase. Grafting, on the other hand, are available more and more frequently. Because of this, new plantings of dwarf beeches in the last few decades were made mainly with grafts of other beech trees. The nicest looking trees were reproduced almost exclusively, which could lead to a reduction of the dwarf beech's gene pool in the future.
Additionally, dwarf beeches frequently propagate by means of layering and . In this way branches lying on the ground take root, or rather, roots growing near the surface produce new shoots.
When planting young dwarf beeches, one should take into account their very slow growth rates (5 to 10 cm per year) and their large space requirements. The dwarf beech and its low, almost horizontally growing branches that hang down to the ground covers a circle of up to 25 m in diameter with its crown. Roadsides and property boundaries are therefore not suitable locations.
These include:
The most well-known dwarf beech was the "Tilly-Buche" (1739–1994) near Raden on the Süntel, which was greatly influential to the local area and today is represented on the coat of arms of Auetal. Its roots served as inspiration for advertisements of Lacalut Toothpaste, and its enormous size inspired artists to make drawings, oil paintings, photographs, fables, and poems. For more than a century, its unclear history led scientists to speculate, sometimes daringly, about the origin of the monstrous beech. Fascination with such examples can only be expected of special specimens or larger groups ("fairy tale forest", "magic forest", etc.). Smaller beech trees are not more noticed than comparable forms of corkscrew hazels, , , or Salix babylonica. For centuries, dwarf beech seedlings were considered useless and weeded out during thinning of European beech stands.
In the Semper forest park, in the north of Lietzow on the island of Rügen, there are ten dwarf beeches that form a dome-like grove. These were planted in 1920 and are a protected natural monument.
In addition, there are the former Forest Plant Garden and today's International Phenology Garden of the Dresden University of Technology near the Hartha spa in the Tharandt Forest and the Forstbotanischer Garten Tharandt, where these supra-regionally known dwarf beeches are dealt with scientifically.
A collection of up to 800 specimens have been identified in Verzy ( Faux de Verzy).
"All of the trunks have grown more or less crooked that out of the entire stock, in my opinion, not one four foot length piece of straight wood could be split, and they have a crown formation which is similar to the weeping ash. It is not possible to give a faithful description of this strange tree growth without drawings."
By the time Tilemann published his 1842 report with four drawings in 1844, the last dwarf beech forest near Hülsede was already cleared.
In the following 160 years, countless essays appeared by botanists and nature lovers full of amazement and perplexity about the odd nature phenomenon.
A 1908 report by A. Oppermann with over 100 photos of the "Renkbuchen" (" Tangle beech"), an illustrated natural history presentation of the last specimens growing in the Süntel by W. Wehrhan from 1902, and a description of the "Tilly-Buche" by Cl. Baroness of Münchhausen from 1911 were frequently cited.
Professor Friedrich Lange studied the morphology of the strange tree from 1966 to 1974 in Bad Münder and at the University of Göttingen. He described the structure and growth of the plant and the stages of development of the unusual growth form, but he could not find the actual reason for it.
Franz Gruber from the University of Göttingen examined the growth and age of the largest dwarf beeches in 2001 and 2002 and made an important contribution to determining the age of these trees, which are mostly overestimated in this regard. (See Literature: Gruber 2002)
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