FRIENDS OF BRUSHY HILLS
  • Home
  • About the Friends
  • Brushy Hills Info
  • Become a Friend
  • Tree Identification

American Hornbeam

Scientific Name: Carpinus caroliniana
​— pronounced kar-PINE-us kair-oh-lin-ee-AN-uh
— Carpinus, Latin for the European hornbeam
— caroliniana, modern Latin, of Carolina
Birch Family (Betulaceae), consisting of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs; includes the Birches, Alders, Hazels, Hornbeams, and Hop-hornbeams
Other Common Names: Ironwood, Musclewood, Blue-beech

The American Hornbeam’s trunk is distinctive: smooth, tight, bluish-gray bark stretched over an irregularly ridged trunk (like a flexed muscle). The bark
changes little with age. The leaves are alternate, elliptical or egg-shaped, with double-toothed margins; dark green above and pale below. The leaf veins are evenly spaced along a midrib.
Photos by David Rosher

The flowers, male (left) and female catkins, come out with the leaves. The female flower is covered by a three-lobed leaf-like bract, which persists as the small nutlet grows and ripens in the fall.
​Photos: flowers by David Rosher, nutlets with bracts by Peter Dziuk

Photos and more info: VA Tech dendrology sheet, Minnesota Wildflowers page

American Hornbeam is most often found as an understory tree in mature deciduous forests, on moist sites, mostly in bottomland; also on east- and north-facing slopes like this one. It may also occur on locally moist sites such as near seeps. American Hornbeam is found scattered through the Preserve.

Interesting facts:
  • The American Hornbeam is small, usually 20 to 40 feet high.
  • Its flowers are wind-pollinated. Its nutlets, which fall with their leaf-like bracts attached, are dispersed by wind; they are eaten by squirrels and several kinds of birds and are a preferred food source of the ruffed grouse.
​
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About the Friends
  • Brushy Hills Info
  • Become a Friend
  • Tree Identification