Also called North American beech.
Part of
beech genus Fagus
in
beech / oak family Fagaceae
in
bayberry / beech / birch / oak / walnut order Fagales.
Native to 🇨🇦 Canada, 🇺🇸 USA and 🇲🇽 Mexico, east of the 🗻 Rocky Mountains.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48)
(color key),
🗺 map (North America, Central America), 
🗺 today + with climate change (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Found in climax forests, with birch and 🍁︎ maple. Famous for 👥︎ people carving their initials in this "initial tree". Leaves may be bronze-color in 🍂︎ autumn.
From a distance, American beech trees sometimes look like
hemlock genus Tsuga.
Even though one is has tiny conifer needles, and the other has large broadleaves. Must be something about the trees' overall shape, and the horizontal way they carry their branches.
Fagus hosts caterpillars of 126 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
Beech nuts are high in protein and fat, and are important food for 🐦︎ birds, 🦌︎ deer, 🐻︎ bear, 🦊︎ fox,
squirrel family Sciuridae,
🐿 chipmunk, 🐭︎ mice and 🐖︎ feral hogs. Beech leaves and twigs provide food for
◼︎🦌︎ white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus
late in the season, when there is very little other food available.
(If needed, you can protect young beech with a
🦌︎ deer-exclosure cage.
)
This plant is known to be a host for (in areas where invasive)
🐝︎ spotted lanternfly (SLF) Lycorma delicatula.
"Beech Bark Disease: A Management Breakthrough?" by Plant Doctor at MSU.