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
Nyssa sylvatica in the Northeast is "pepperidge." On Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, this species is called "beetlebung", perhaps for its use in making the mallet known as a beetle, used for hammering bungs (stoppers) into barrels. "Nyssa sylvatica" grows to tall, rarely to , with a trunk diameter of , rarely up to . These trees typically have a straight trunk with the branches extending outward at right angles. The bark is dark gray and flaky when young, but it becomes furrowed with age, resembling alligator hide on very old stems. The twigs of this tree are reddish-brown, usually hidden by a