Technical guidelines are targeted to practical forest managers and provide summarized information on the biology and ecology of tree species, distribution ranges, importance and use, genetic knowledge, threats to genetic diversity and recommendations for long-term genetic conservation. For the full list of Technical guidelines produced, please visit http://www.euforgen.org/publications/technical_guidelines.htm

Kandemir G.

Kaya, Z.

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Oriental beech or eastern beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) belongs to the family Fagaceae. It is a de-ciduous broad-leaved tree which reaches height of 30-40 meters. In rare instances, trees up to 50 meters in height can be found. Stem diameter can reach about 1 m at breast height. Height growth of oriental beech at early ages is slow. The maxi-mum growth rate is usually achieved at the age of 30-40 years, but under shelter, this could take longer, even 60 years. If oriental beech ex-periences fast growth during the early stages, then growth will end at about 100 years of age, whilst for stands growing more slowly over the early stages, the growth will continue until the age of 160-200 years.In general, oriental beech has a similar appearance to Europe-an beech (Fagus sylvatica). Both beech species are characterized by their smooth and silver-grey stem. The stem colour of orien-tal beech is a lighter grey than European beech. The leaves of oriental beech are egg-shaped without any lobes or peaks and have a short stalk. The leaves are alternate, simple and whole, or with a slightly crenate margin, 7-15 cm long and 5-9 cm wide, with 8-13 veins on each side of the leaf (compared with 5-8 veins in F. sylvatica). The buds are long and slender, 15-30 mm long and 2-3 mm thick, but thicker (4-5 mm) where the buds include flower buds.Oriental beech is a monoe-cious species (having the fe-male and male reproductive or-gans separated in different floral structures on the same plant). The male flowers hang as small catkins and the female flowers are erect inflorescences that ap-pear at about the same time as the leaves begin to emerge in spring. Oriental beech is a wind-pollinated species. Fruit maturation occurs in October, 5-6 months after pollination. The endocarp is thick, smooth and a shiny dark brown colour, hairy These Technical Guidelines are intended to assist those who cherish the valuable oriental beech gene pool and its inheritance, through conserving valuable seed sources or use in practical forestry. The focus is on conserving the genetic diversity of the species at the European scale. The recommendations provided in this module should be regarded as a commonly agreed basis to be complemented and further developed for local, national or regional conditions. The Guidelines are based on the available knowledge of the species and on widely accepted methods for the conservation of forest genetic resources.Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and useFagus orientalis Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis Oriental beechGaye Kandemir1 and Zeki Kaya21 Forest Tree Seeds and Tree Breeding Research Directorate, Ankara, Turkey 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TurkeyBiology and ecologyinside the husk. Its colour light-ens as the beechnut dries. The seeds are small triangular nuts 15-20 mm long and 7-10 mm wide at the base; there are two nuts enclosed in a spiky cupule. The cupule differs from that of European beech in having flat-tened, slightly leaf-like append-ages at the base (slender, soft spines in European beech). A good seed crop of oriental beech occurs about every 2-5 years. Fresh seeds, which are non-en-dospermic, contain about 25-30% water and cannot tolerate desiccation to a moisture level of less than 10-12% at room temperature. For spring sowing, seeds can be stored at 3˚C for 5-6 months. However, seeds can be stored for 1.5-2 years at -5˚C with 12-17% moisture content. Oriental beech seeds have a dor-mancy mechanism. Therefore, to induce germination, seeds need to be stratified for 9-14 weeks at 3˚C. Seeds are rich in edible oil. If seeds are dried and ground into a powder they can be used to make bread and cakes.Phytophthora omnivora is the main defective fun-gus of beech seedlings. Starting from the germi-nation period, especial-ly at the appearance of the cotyledons, the fungus starts to affect seedlings by causing first browning and wilting, then death. Beech bark disease and bleeding canker, caused by Phytophthora fungus, are the principal diseases affect-ing beech trees. Phytophthora kills localized areas of the bark and sapwood especially on the root flare and lower trunk. Reddish-brown liquid issues from lesions, thus giving rise to the common name “bleeding canker”.Oriental beech is indigenous to the Balkans in the west, through Anatolia (Asia Minor), to the Cau-casus, northern Iran and Crimea. In the central-east and east re-gion of the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece, exten-sive hybridization zones are ob-served between oriental and Eu-ropean beeches.  In Turkey, the species is distributed in Trachia and in the south of Marmara Sea and throughout the Black Sea Regions where it is possible to find oriental beech both as pure stands and mixed forests with conifers and other deciduous broadleaves. There are also iso-lated natural populations of the species north-east of the Medi-terranean Sea on the Amanos Mountains (Turkey). These popu-lations are known as the most southerly populations within the species’ distribution. In Iran, the distribution of the species is lim-ited to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and it occurs as mixed forest with Carbines in the northern slopes of the Elburz Mountains. Oriental beech also occurs naturally in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, Azerbai-jan, and Armenia. Oriental beech is found between 200 m and 2200 m above sea level. The dis-tribution patterns of the species in the south-eastern Balkans suggest that F. orientalis may occur on drier and warmer sites than F. sylvatica.Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis FaguDistributionOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisThe wood colour of oriental beech ranges from reddish to white. Reddish-brown heart-wood formation occurs when the trees reach 80-100 years of age. Beech wood is classified as a medium density wood (0.66 g/cm³). As a hardwood species, the wood is heavy, hard, strong and highly resistant to shock. Thus, it is suitable for steam bending.Oriental beech wood is principally used for fuel, but there are other uses such as particleboard, furniture, flooring veneer, mining poles (props), railway tiles and paper. Molecular marker studies re-vealed that the differentiation of F. orientalis and F. sylvatica as separate species is a relatively recent event. The high number of chloroplast types in the north-ern Turkish populations of ori-ental beech indicates a possi-ble glacial refuge in this area. The magnitude of genetic variation among popula-tions of oriental beech is considerably higher than that of European beech. Also, adative trait related studies indicated that there is a discontinuous pattern of vari-ation due to adaptation to cer-tain local conditions, such as elevation, aspect, soil pH value and frequency of wet snowfalls. However, a continuous variation in other characters, as in the time of leaf flushing, was reported. The results of studies dealing with genetics of oriental beech reported the presence of high-er genetic diversity in oriental beech than in European beech. This suggests that oriental spe-cies may be the ancestral spe-cies within the European beech complex. Beech bears both male and female flowers on the same indi-vidual and is a wind pollinated tree species. This characteristic and reduced spreading of the seeds produce distinct family structures within natural stands. Thus, further genetic studies covering the whole range of oriental beech are needed and these characteristics should be taken into consideration during sampling of populations. Oriental beech does not pro-duce suckers like some other beech species. Mass propagation by means of vegetative propaga-tion (cloning) is generally possible, but it is not practiced due to the high costs involved since cuttings are gener-ally difficult to root. Ge-netic improvement of beech has been limited to seed stand selection and seed collection from them.  A simple stand se-lection system is usually applied. The system relies on stand qual-ity characters such as average growth increment, good health, good phenotypic appearance of most trees and a large number of seed trees for designation. The area of a seed stand should have a minimum core size of 10 ha. Most selected seed stands of oriental beech in Turkey, includ-ing core and buffer zone, are greater than 100 ha unless this is restricted by natural stand sizes. There are selected seed stands and gene conservation forests of oriental beech. However, cur-rently none of the material from the seed stands has been tested. Also, no seed orchards exist.Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis FaguImportance and use Genetic knowledgeOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisA considerable part of oriental beech forests, at least in Turkey, consist of trees originating from stem sprouts due to anthropo-genic factors and improper sil-vicultural treatments in the past. This affects the quality of oriental beech timber and the genetic base of stands since regen-eration with seedlings, the products of genet-ic recombination, will provide a larger genetic base needed for adapta-tion to existing or chang-ing environmental condi-tions. Thus, regeneration of oriental beech forests in such places should be gradually replaced through seedlings rather than stem sprouting. Due to the rareness of mast seed years and presence of many diseases and predators of seeds and seedlings, more essential work on seed, seedling and plantation physiology and nursery are needed.Beech grows in sites favour-able for agriculture. Therefore, in the past, beech forests have been cleared for agriculture, probably causing some ge-netic resources to have been lost. Dense vegetation cover (like Rhododendron) and steep slopes cause problems for the natural regeneration of oriental beech. Although total beech for-ests cover about 1.7 million ha in Turkey, the difficulties for natural regeneration of oriental beech forests, low quality of wood for pulping and the paper indus-try, as well as land clearing and plantation of conifers (European black pine and Scots pine) have led to a fragmentation of the beech forests in the country. To reduce the effects of threats on the genetic resources of oriental beech, seed stands and gene conservation forests have been estab-lished in many countries. For instance in Turkey, there are 28 seed stands, rep-resenting the natural range of the species and covering 3700 ha. There are also 23 gene conservation forests cov-ering 3100 ha. Additionally, there are numerous national parks and nature conservation areas where oriental beech is naturally found as mixed and pure beech forests. These fig-ures suggest that conserva-tion activities for this species, at least in Turkey, are ad-equate to secure the genetic resources of oriental beech for future uses.      Conservation of oriental beech genetic resources is carried out mainly by setting up seed stands and gene conservation forests as part of in situ programmes. Seed collected from these ar-eas can be used for reforesta-tion following the seed transfer zones. Furthermore, there are other conservation programmes such as national parks and na-ture conservation areas which harbour oriental beech stands that can be used as seed sourc-es. There is no information con-cerning ex situ conservation of oriental beech genetic resources. In reforestation programmes the minimum requirement should be that the origin of the reproductive material is known and its adap-tive characters should be ap-propriate for the ecological con-ditions at the regeneration site. For this purpose, the “Guidelines for oriental beech seed trans-fer zones”, (Atalay, 1992) based on climate, soil and bedrock characteristics could be used until new seed transfer guide-lines are prepared. These guidelines were prepared for the natural range of oriental beech in Turkey, but could be used as a reference by neighbouring countries.A system for the con-trol of reproductive ma-terial should be applied and recommendations for proper use of differ-ent reproductive mate-Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalis FaguThreats togenetic diversityGuidelines for geneticconservation and useOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisrial should be developed. The Council Directive 1999/105/EC on the marketing of forest repro-ductive material provides basic definitions of current categories of reproductive material. In years with abundant seed of oriental beech, seed lots should be har-vested and stored in sufficient amounts, even though it is ex-pensive and difficult to maintain the viability of seeds in storage.Seed stands alone may not fulfil the actual requirements for the conservation of genetic re-sources of oriental beech, espe-cially those populations located in extreme habitats and refuge areas. Therefore, there may be a need for gene conservation for-ests to be set up from natural stands and managed according to proper silvicultural plans, to ensure the potential for successful natural regeneration. The objec-tive is to maintain the potential for continuous future evolution of the population. It has been suggested that gene conservation forests should cover certain minimum ar-eas in order to maintain sufficient amounts of genetic variability. An approximate estimate would be 100 ha including core and buffer zones. However, the area could be smaller to conserve locally adapted populations. Such for-ests may also contain other tree species if they are admixed with oriental beech.The establishment of ex situ conservation plantations of ori-ental beech may be necessary in order to conserve the genetic variation of threatened popula-tions that cannot be maintained at the original site, such as relic populations. The objective will be to establish a new population that maintains as much as possible of the original genetic variability and allows long-term adaptation to the local conditions at the plant-ing site. It can be established by planting seedlings, but also by direct sowing. Stands of 10 ha are generally recommended for this purpose.Fagus orientalis Fagus orientalisDistribution range of oriental beechOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFaFagus orientalis Fagus orientalisThis series of Technical Guide-lines and distribution maps were produced by members of the EUFORGEN Networks. The objective is to identify minimum requirements for long-term genetic conservation in Europe, in order to reduce the overall conservation cost and to improve quality standards in each country.Citation: Kandemir G. and Z. Kaya. 2009 EUFORGEN Techni-cal Guidelines for genetic conser-vation and use of oriental beech (Fagus orientalis). Bioversity Inter-national, Rome, Italy. 6 pages.Drawings: Fagus orientalis, Giovanna Bernetti © Bioversity, 2009.ISBN 978-92-9043-804-5Atalay, İ. 1992. The ecology of beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) forests and their regioning in terms of seed transfer. Forest Tree Seeds and Tree Breeding Research Directorate, Ankara. 209 pp.Papageorgiou, A. C., A. Vidalis, O. Gailing, I. Tsiripidis, S. Hatziskakis, S. Boutsios, S. Galatsidas, and R. Finkeldey 2008. Genetic variation of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Rodopi (N.E. Greece). Eur. J. Forest Res. 127: 81-88.Denk,T., G. Grimm, K. Stögerer, M. Langer, and V.Hemleben 2002. The evo-lutionary history of Fagus in western Eurasia: Evidence from genes, mor-phology and the fossil record. Plant Syst. Evol. 232: 213-236.Gailing, O. and G. von Wuehlisch 2004. Nuclear markers (AFLPs) and chloro-plast microsatellites differ between Fagus sylvatica an F. orientalis. Silvae Genetica 53(3): 105-110.Gömöry, D., L. Paule and J. Vysny 2007. Patterns of allozyme variation in western Eurasian Fagus. Botanical society of the Linnean Society 154: 165-174.Shanjani, P. S. and D. Gömöry 2004. Isozyme variability of Fagus orientalis Lipsky in beech populations. International Journal of Agriculture and Biol-ogy 6(1): 116-125.Vettori, C., P. Donatella, L. Paule and R. Giannini 2004. Identification of the Fagus sylvatica L. and Fagus orientalis Lipsky species and intraspecific variability. Forest Genetics 11(3-4): 223-230. Selected bibliographyMore informationwww.euforgen.orgOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFagus orientalisOriental beechFaEUFORGEN Secretariat  c/o Bioversity InternationalVia dei Tre Denari, 472/a00057 Maccarese (Fiumicino)Rome, ItalyTel. (+39)0661181Fax: (+39)0661979661euforgen@cgiar.org

Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis)

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Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis)

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