Background and Aims The evolutionary history of Fagus is incompletely understood. A unique association of leaves and reproductive structures of Fagus from the Miocene of South China extends our knowledge of morphological variability of the genus in the geological past and informs patterns in the evolution of beeches.Methods Leaves preserved as impressions are described and compared to leaves of extant and fossil analogues. Features of the compressions of staminate flower and cupules studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are compared with those of extant Fagus. Pollen preserved in situ and adhered to leaf cuticles is studied with light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (in situ pollen) and compared with fossil and extant species.Key Results The new association of Fagus fossils identified in the Miocene of South China is the most complex such association recognized to date worldwide. Leaves of F. tengxianensis sp. nov. and cupules of F. aculeata sp. nov. display a mosaic combination of features characteristic of some extant and fossil Asian species of the Fagus subgenus Fagus. The staminate flower of F. glabra sp. nov. differs from those of all Fagus species in lacking trichomes and its sepals completely covering the stamens. The in situ pollen differs from other Fagus fossil pollen studied with SEM, and is similar to pollen of extant F. longipetiolata.Conclusions The evolutionary history of Fagus is now expanded with a unique Miocene association of leaves and reproductive structures from South China, some of which show similarities to extant and fossil Asian species, while others are distinct from any extant species. These fossils demonstrate that Fagus subgenus Fagus existed in South China as early as the Miocene and suggest that Fagus leaves and female reproductive structures have been in a morphological stasis at least since the Eocene, while staminate flowers were more labile.