While I was investigating the mycelium network, a beech tree appeared. Beech trees are called the mother and queen of the forest. The many nuts that beech trees bear are highly nutritious and contain no tannins that make them difficult to eat, making them a valuable food source for forest animals. The soil in forests where beech trees grow is soft and retains a lot of water, which means that forests with beech trees have a rich ecosystem.
https://www.shinrin-ringyou.com/tree/buna.php
Beech trees produce a good harvest once every few years, dropping a large amount of nuts, which is apparently a survival strategy for the trees. By keeping the number of nuts low in normal years, the population of animals and insects that eat the nuts is also kept low, so that the nuts in good years remain uneaten. This survival strategy is called masting. Beech trees are amazing.
https://www.yamakei-online.com/yama-ya/detail.php?id=1125
Apparently, mice and squirrels gather and store beech nuts in one place, a behavior known as hoarding, and sometimes seeds from forgotten hoards sprout and are dispersed. So animals can forget things, too. In those cases, the sprouts grow together.
The most common insects that eat beech are the beech fruit moth, which eats the fruit, and the beech leaf moth, which eats the leaves. The former is dealt with by masting, and the latter by cordyceps. The reason why they end within 1-3 years even if they occur in large numbers is because the cocoon fungus captures the insects that have become pupae underground with its mycelium. This is how the ecosystem is kept in balance.
https://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/nourinsuisan/ringyose/seikkinoko/koza/kinoko12.html
Beech trees apparently have a vast mycelium network underground, and in addition to living in symbiosis with fungi, they also apparently provide nutrients to young beech trees and communicate with each other. Perhaps beech trees also communicate with each other during the masting season. Young beech trees are short and do not receive much light, so they try to be as flat as possible to get the light they need. As trees get taller, they become slimmer as they are able to get more light. Beech trees have amazing intelligence.
https://www.ffpri.affrc.go.jp/research/saizensen/2009/20091116fagus-crenata.html
Beech trees are also known as climax species, and are a tree species that make up climax forests. Climax forests are forests where the trees and plants have reached a state that is best suited to the local climate, stabilizing the ecosystem and creating a state of extremely high diversity. Mature beech trees are replaced every 100 to 200 years, maintaining their climax state.
https://kanko.city.izu.shizuoka.jp/form1.html?pid=4136
I researched beech trees, and found that they are great because they maintain rich forests and support many living creatures. The wise beech is amazing. The Earth is amazing for having such large trees.
