Could you post a pic?

my money is on harmless lichens

ken

Pam, do a search on beech bark disease. Photos aplenty.

Folks, there is a complex involving both an insect and a fungus going around killing American beech from upstate New York to Wisconsin. I'll bet this is what Pam refers to.

you can see such on my very healthy tree ... ken

my only problem was that the tree attracted dwarfs ....

Sure are beauts. Ken, all kidding aside, are you saying you have seen beech bark disease on your tri-colored? I know Michigan's got the disease, but all references I've seen have been to wild, American beech.

Ken, how tall is that red headed dwarf now?

Thanks everybody tried posting a pic...but it didn't come through..

I think this is way worse than yours Ken...mine started out looking like yours the last couple of years...now I think it's a goner

That is really bad, fungus living on dead wood.

Whatever is causing the bark to peel is killing the tree. The fungus may just be opportunistic.

BTW- Ken was just showing pix of lichen (and a dwarf), not fungus. And the dwarf was nearly double in size when I saw him in 2012.

tj

Well, a few yrs back I only saw lichen on my tree...now, this appears...top portion is all budding...if it dies so be it. Win some loose some...I was hoping to learn the name of this fungus. I will start researching.....

Is that fungus existing on the structural wood of the tree or the outer live parts?

Any signs of encapulation? I'd be real tempted to cut that stuff off my tree, apply some fungicide and bug killer to the nearby area and see if it encapsulates the wound. Worked on a maple of mine with some weird canker.

Like hug says, likely a secondary invader here. Whatever caused the initial wounding with subsequent heartwood rot is long gone. Applying pest control chemicals won't do a darn thing except spread some more pesticides around. If it is indeed that bad, tree's future may be severely truncated. And that's not something abut its' having a nice trunk!

Could I cut that stuff off and not apply chemicals???

my tree has lichens ... like in the pic .. the boy does not ... and hes about 5'8" ...

ken

Beech die and fall quickly when hit by damaging conditions, with a wound that big yours may not last. If the foliage deteriorates and there is something nearby it could hit you may want to have it cut down.

I wish we had a better overall view of the tree, to assess general health, etc. Could make a difference here.

Pam, cutting or scraping that stuff off-or not cutting or scraping that stuff off-will make no difference, nor is there any way, let alone reason, to apply a pest-control product. There's nothing to apply it to. Fungicides, for example-would have zero effect on any wood-rotting fungus, let alone something this advanced. That's just not something you can do. And you or somebody else said something above about insects. So far as we can tell, there is no insect issue here. There may be something going on, but we can't make that determination from anything presented here.

Mostly I wish we had a better look at the tree.

Indeed, the 1987 storms devastated our beech woods - those shallow roots give up the ghost very easily...and for such majestic trees, they appear to have a severe lack of resilience.

It's still young, wait and see what happends when the wound closes up. There are some nice callus wood in the first pic, so there is still hope.

Agree^. Nicely formed tree, albeit with this quite pronounced wound/decay going on already. May as well see what it does.

Hooray, I feel better already! Thank you all so much for your knowledgeable input!! That's why I love this forum, people like you!

I see there is no leaves left on this tree. Is that normal for the tri-colored beech? The common green european beech does normally keep its brown leaves until spring, at least when the trees are young.

The two main faults I have with Beeches is that they have no Fall color. Brown, to me, is no Fall color. Plus it dribbles leaves all winter long. Who wants to rake leaves in the Spring when the crocus are coming up? I like Fall with a definite ending.

All that aside, I have a Tricolor Beech. Here's a picture of a friend, Denise, bending over pulling a weed. I couldn't resist taking a picture. ;-)

Mike

Agreed-tricolored and all beeches do hold their leaves pretty much until the new ones push them off, but OP is saying there are buds on the tree, so we will have to presume all is well, so far as that goes.

based on its location ... and the fact that it threatens nothing... you can spend the next 10 to 30 years.. watching the process ... of whatever is going to happen ...

trying to fix this ... is found... in the dictionary under... i have nothing better to do ...

imho .... ignore it ...Que Sera, Sera...

ken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbKHDPPrrc

Side note: cultivar being discussed here is purple tricolor beech. Tricolor beech, with pink, green and white leaves is effectively, perhaps even entirely extinct.