Beech and the species "F. okamotoi", proposed by the botanist Chung-Fu Shen in 1992, comprise this subgenus. The better known "Fagus" subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. This group includes "Fagus sylvatica", "Fagus grandifolia", "Fagus crenata", "Fagus lucida", "Fagus longipetiolata", and "Fagus hayatae". The classification of the European beech, "Fagus sylvatica" is complex, with a variety of different names proposed for different species and subspecies within this region (for example "Fagus taurica", "Fagus orientalis", and "Fagus moesica"). Research suggests that beeches in Eurasia differentiated fairly late in evolutionary history, during the Miocene. The populations in
Carex sylvatica York and North Carolina, and to New Zealand, where it was first recorded in 1969. In its native range, "C. sylvatica" lives in deciduous woodlands on heavy soils; it is sometimes found in unwooded areas, but usually only as a relic of ancient woodland. In North America, it is generally found in disturbed areas within deciduous woodland. "Carex sylvatica" was first described by the English botanist William Hudson in his 1762 work "Flora Anglica". Hybrids have been reported between "C. sylvatica" and "C. strigosa" (in France) and between "C. sylvatica" and "C. hirta" (in Austria). Its English common name is