Fagus sylvatica the small catkins which are a hallmark of the Fagales order (beeches, chestnuts, oaks, walnuts, hickories, birches, and hornbeams). The female flowers produce beechnuts, small triangular nuts long and wide at the base; there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 5–6 months after pollination. Flower and seed production is particularly abundant in years following a hot, sunny and dry summer, though rarely for two years in a row. The natural range extends from southern Sweden to northern Sicily, west to France, southern England, northern Portugal, central Spain, and east to northwest Turkey, where it intergrades with
Cepaea sylvatica Cepaea sylvatica " Cepaea sylvatica" is a medium-sized species of air-breathing dextral land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Helicidae. It is a close relative of the grove snail ("Cepaea nemoralis"). This species lives in many of the same habitats as "Cepaea nemoralis", such as woods, dunes and grassland, however "C. sylvatica" tolerates wetter and colder areas than the grove snail can tolerate. "Cepaea sylvatica" is generally similar in appearance to "C. nemoralis", although the shell is not as colorful and not as variable as that of the grove snail. Also, the diameter of the shell of