There are a couple of reasons these two beeches are so different. The one on the left,taller thinner and higher branches is growing with other trees in the gully along Cloverlea Rd. When competing with other trees beeches can grow faster and taller to get to the canopy. The tree near the end of Wagner Rd. is competing only with a few small evergreens, probably not present during its early years.
On the other hand there are American and European beeches, with many subdivisions of the European:purple,copper, oak leave. This may become more obvious in the spring. There were beechnuts at the base of the trees, food for animals and man alike. The nature course also mentioned the word beech comes from the root for book. Either the leaves feel like paper or the early German tribes wrote on pieces of beech wood.
There is a complex interaction going on under the soil between various fungi and the beech roots. The interaction seems to benefit both.
A possible moral is that the peer group influences the adult tree.
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