When trees are blown over in a storm they are known as windthrows. A freshly fallen one is easy to recognise. The wood at the break is sharp and pale, and branches and leaves lie scattered around it.
Beech is a relatively soft hardwood, certainly when compared with oak, and it decays much more quickly as a result. The whole process usually takes no more than about thirty-five years, and less in humid conditions.
The windthrow I photographed is about ten to twelve years old by my reckoning, though this is an inexact science at best. The root plate is already collapsing and no longer stands fully vertical. It has been colonised by plants, and there are hollows where small animals may have sheltered. Most of the outer bark has been lost and the trunk has begun to soften.
Later, at around twenty-five to thirty years, it will resemble an ancient log boat, blackened and hollow. By forty, it will have been reabsorbed, having given its substance back to the Forest.