By Casso
Kent, United Kingdom
We have a very old copper beech tree in our garden and this year it is dropping little brown 'seeds?'. We have never noticed them in other years. When husband cuts the grass they get crushed and blow about and we think it is causing him an allergy. What are they?
Here is a closer pic. It was very windy so couldn't get a good pic.
- 10 May, 2011
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Answers
these are the flowers of the tree. my common beech is doing the same thing at the moment. lots of pollen [sneezing our heads off!]
10 May, 2011
Thank you Moon grower and Seaburngirl. That explains the allergy symptoms. I don't know why we haven't noticed them in other years. Is ours a common beach too Seaburngirl?
10 May, 2011
yours is a copper beech which is basically a colour varient of the green common beech. ours is about 150yrs, its lovely but does create dense shade.
10 May, 2011
I was given a website about beech trees and I read that they do not grow flowers until they are 30 to 80 years old. That explains why we have never seen them before. Our house was built 34 years ago and before that it was the garden of a very ancient cottage.
22 May, 2011
There you go... you found the answer - well done!
22 May, 2011
We have literally hundreds of beech nuts on our grass. Some are just the burs so I suppose squirrels have eaten the nuts. Trouble is it is difficult to remove them. If we use the mower the nuts cause it to make a lot of noise and they get stuck in the blades. We have a garden vac and have managed to pick up quite a lot but some are embedded in the grass. I've raked some up in little piles and hope we can soon get rid of them. If we get them again next year we will have the tree chopped down as Dave is very allergic to them.
17 Oct, 2011
Once the tree has started to flower it will do so every year.
17 Oct, 2011
I use my lawn scarifier to pick up leaves etc off my lawn, i am sure it would work for beech nuts etc, So 2 jobs in one ,
12 Oct, 2016
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The remains of last years beech mast (or seeds). Nothing you can do the tree will have done this every year.
10 May, 2011