The situation is healthier around the dwarf beeches of Verzy, especially now that the construction of a pathway enables visitors to admire them without making harmful trampling on the ground over the fragile roots.
A mass of speculation, from far-fetched to more credible, but often scientifically unfounded, have been put forward to explain the origin of the Faux of Verzy.
These monks were great travellers and, according to Y. Bernard they may have brought back a treasured young plant from an eastern area that they were passing through for evangelizing.
It was said that when going with Charles VII of France to the abbey of St Basle, Joan of Arc climbed up in the branches of a fau at Verzy and sat down.
The hypothesis of a temporary adaptation (Accommodat in French) due to the local environment, still frequently in favour in the area, can’t be taken on because this adaptation is not genetically stable; the dwarf beeches, when they are transplanted from Verzy to other environments or when they are grafted on a common beech tree keep their dwarf tree aspect.
Nevertheless, the photonic and electronic analysis with transmission carried out by J. C. Audran in 1985 failed in discovering an active presence of virus or of mollicutes (a class of small bacteria).
This area of Verzy belongs to the French National Forests Office and thus is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year who were a threat for the survival of this variety.
This low strain brought by this protection plan is justified by the pleasure to pass on these natural beauties to the future generations.
In the Arènes de Lutèce, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, stands a 2 meter high dwarf beech tree belonging to the same species; it was planted in 1905.