ArborNote’s Tree of the Week was chosen by our product specialist, Xiao Luo! She chose the Purple Fountain Beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Purple Fountain’). It is a man-made horticultural cultivar, it does not have a unique “natural habitat” in the wild. However, it inherits its biological traits and habitat preferences entirely from its parent species, the European Beech (Fagus sylvatica), which is native to much of Europe.It is a striking, narrow-growing ornamental tree known for its deep burgundy-purple foliage and graceful, cascading weeping branches. Reaches roughly 20 to 30 feet tall and 8 to 15 feet wide at maturity. Its deep purple color comes from a high concentration of water-soluble pigments called anthocyanins in the leaves. These pigments actually mask the underlying green chlorophyll. If you plant a Purple Fountain Beech in the deep shade, it will slowly fade to green as the tree struggles to produce more chlorophyll to capture what little sunlight is available!