The Ladder Beech
roughly 75 to 90 yearsEuropean Beech
Two of this beech's branches have grown into each other and welded shut, which is how it got its name. Foresters call the effect anastomosis: where two limbs press together for long enough, the bark between them wears away, the living tissue underneath meets, and the two pieces of wood carry on as one. Beeches do it more readily than most trees, and on this one the result reads as rungs across a gap, so the register lists it as the hetre echelle, the ladder beech. Everything else about it is ordinary, which is rather the point. It is 75 to 90 years old, not old for a beech, and just under three metres round measured at the foot of the trunk. It stands where two forest roads meet near the carrefour du rossignol, in the middle of Roumare, and it was already half a century old when the December 1999 storm went through this forest and took some of its bigger neighbours with it. Park before the barrier on the Etienne forest road and walk in. There is a panel on the trail, and no gate, ticket or opening hours anywhere in this forest.
The button above opens directions in your maps app. No public transport reaches the forest. By car: on the D351 between Canteleu and Sahurs, at the 'carrefour Etienne' take the Etienne forest road (between parcelles 233 and 247) and park before the forest barrier, then walk on to the 'carrefour du rossignol'; the tree stands at the point between two forest roads.
- Species
- European Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
- Age estimate
- roughly 75 to 90 years
- Location
- Junction of two forest roads near the 'carrefour du rossignol', parcelle 242, Foret domaniale de Roumare (Foret de Roumare, between Canteleu and Sahurs)
- Access
- Free, public ONF-managed forest, no restrictions. Waymarked as part of the official 'arbres remarquables' trail.
- Getting there
- No public transport reaches the forest. By car: on the D351 between Canteleu and Sahurs, at the 'carrefour Etienne' take the Etienne forest road (between parcelles 233 and 247) and park before the forest barrier, then walk on to the 'carrefour du rossignol'; the tree stands at the point between two forest roads.
Trees nearby
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