Naturally distributed throughout Turkey, the Caucasus and northern Iran, it differs from our native beech in its fluted stem and longer leaves (to 12cm). It colours richly in autumn and, in the Elburz mountains of northern Iran, it provides an ideal habitat for the dwarf cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, which occurs in sheets beneath its canopy. The Arboretum trees are growing well and have now reached 4m in height.