Fagus sylvatica include flower buds. The leaves of beech are often not abscissed in the autumn and instead remain on the tree until the spring. This process is called marcescence. This particularly occurs when trees are saplings or when plants are clipped as a hedge (making beech hedges attractive screens, even in winter), but it also often continues to occur on the lower branches when the tree is mature. Small quantities of seeds may be produced around 10 years of age, but not a heavy crop until the tree is at least 30 years old. "F. sylvatica" male flowers are borne in
The Old Tree in 1900 in the Pavilion de l'Alma and the "La Plume" salon - in "La Revue Blanche", Felicien Fagus wrote: The Old Tree The Old Tree is a plaster sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, originally conceived as part of his "The Gates of Hell" project. He produced it in 1885, only a year after the formation of the Salon des Independents. It measures 39.3x38.4x27 cm and shows a nude young woman clinging to an old man holding his arms out like a tree, contrasting several opposites - male and female, youth and age, softness and roughness. The work