Thinking that he was a trusty tree

[venta]

Yesterday one of my colleagues asked - apropos of nothing - whether anyone knew where he could find a beech tree. He'd been told that a bottle of gin is much improved by having a few beech leaves pushed into it to infuse and was keen to try it but, like so many people, can only identify the larch.

I drive through a clutch of beech trees to get to work, so agreed to bring in some leaves. This morning I paused briefly, snapped off the end of a twig, and brough in a few leaves which are now sitting in a glass of water on my desk.

Except... I'm now suffering from a terrible crisis of confidence. I've picked what I've always believed to be beech leaves. But someone is going to imbibe them... what if I've collected, I dunno, deadly nightshade instead ?

Yes, I know there are tree-identification sites online. The trouble is that pictures on those sites never seem to match anything. Plus they all show mature beech leaves, and I've got extremely juvenile ones here. Besides, all the characterstics do match. I was reasonably sure in the first place that it was beech; having consulted the web I'm still reasonably sure.

But... if you hear of unexplained deaths in the Wokingham area, don't be surprised if I leave the country suddenly.

Comments

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

They used to add nightshade to beer, in place of hops, to keep it from going off.

[ylla.livejournal.com]

Beeches are the ones which spend most of the year brown, no?
Are there green beech leaves yet this year?
(Spring is being very slow in the north, admittedly)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Copper beeches are brown, but ordinary beeches are mostly green except when deciduating. At the moment the leaves are new and are an extremely implausible-looking pale acid green.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

At the moment the leaves are new and are an extremely implausible-looking pale acid green.

Not such a bad thing since the colour is likely to be the best feature of the resulting brew! (Aren't you supposed to add sugar and brandy as well?)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I don't know what a larch looks like.

Remember the wood you go through just after Nettlebed? All those trees are beeches. They have that smooth, slightly greyish bark. And the young leaves look the same as the mature leaves, but a much lighter, brighter green and (if memory serves) perhaps very slightly fuzzy.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

In fact, if you have a photo, I may be able to tell you with some confidence whether what you have is beech.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Sadly, my phone doesn't seem to be up to taking a photo which would show more than it being something green and blobby.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Sounds like beech leaves to me :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

If you were to go and look at today's photo on new_brunette's LJ then I reckon that's a beech tree ;)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

So do I.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't go through Nettlebed any more (unless you mean after on the way home). However, around the turn for the Highwayman there are woods I believe to be beeches, and would (and did!) unhesitatingly identify them as such in normal circumstances.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Very few native British plants are sufficiently poisonous that a couple of leaves infused in alcohol will give you much worse than a bad tummy. Which the gin would probably do anyway.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Eat some and find out....It would be rude to posion friends =;-)

Then again a dead liz would be a bad thing and i don't know your work collegue, so have no atachment to them...If they are above you, you could always get a promotion. Bonus !

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure just shoving a few beech leaves in the bottle is going to have much effect. Ideally you want absolutely loads of them, such that the level of gin is only just above their surface, and to leave it to steep for quite a while. (And then mix with sugar to taste.)

I've never had it, but I've seen the recipe in Richard Mabey's book.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

I can recognise beeches when they have beech nuts on. If they don't then I have to try to remember what trees with beech nuts on look like apart from the beech nuts. I agree with lanfykins that there is a kind of fuzziness to them. Not a soft fuzziness, but a sharp one. I think the leaves are oval and pointy, with visible ridgey bits which may create jags around the edges. Am I anywhere close?

When I was a kid my mother could identify every tree we saw. I always wished I could do the same. But I'm far too lazy to learn it. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that I have too manyother things I'd *rather* learn.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

My father would know. Sadly that doesn't help.

[(Anonymous)]

Even at this time of year there should be some of last autumn's beech mast (i.e.nutshells)around the foot of the trees and these look like little open woody flowers. That would be a good clue.