PHOTO DYarrow 2001
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PHOTO DYarrow 2001 |
| National Champion
| American Hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana Scarsdale, New York Circumference = 118 inches (9.83 feet)
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The American Hornbeam, also called Ironwood, Blue Beech, or Water Beech, is a small, shrubby tree with one or more short trunks, usually angled or fluted, with long, slender branches and broad, rounded crown. The trunk has a deeply rippled, sinewy look, with smooth gray bark with a distinct muscular appearance.
Tree Surgeon Lou Kingsley of Cold Spring, New York begins to climb the National Champion American Hornbeam to collect budwood cuttings
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PHOTO DYarrow 2001 |
The name "hornbeam" is from European words "horn," for toughness, and "beam," for tree, and refers to the very hard, tough wood of this species. This member of the Birch Family acquired the name beech because of its similar bark and leaves. American Hornbeam is also commonly confused with Eastern Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana, also called "Ironwood" or "Hophornbeam"), which has similar leaves, size and growth habit.
The American Hornbeam is found in moist, rich soils mainly along streams and in ravines from southern Quebac and Ontario south to central Florida and east Texas. It is found mostly as an understory tree of hardwood forests, often in dense thickets to the exclusion of other trees.
| Identification & Culture |
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American Hornbeam wood is very dense and heavy, yet, surprisingly, decays quickly once in contact with soil. The buds and tiny nuts are browsed by deer, and eaten by several birds, including ruffed grouse, quail, pheasants, and bobwhite.
This elegant, shapely American Hornbeam specimen, growing in the back yard of a private home just a few miles north of New York City, is quite large for its species, and is well-cared for and admired by its owners.
IdentificationSize: The American Hornbeam is commonly small, often shrubby, 20 to 40 feet high, with trunk diameters 4 to 8 inches, sometimes up to one foot or more. Its spreading branches form a broad, rounded crown.
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PHOTO David Yarrow 2001 |
Range: The American Hornbeam has a very broad range throughout eastern North America, from Nova Scotia to central Minnesota, and from southern Quebec and Ontario to central Florida and east Texas.
Habitat: The American Hornbeam prefers rich, wet soils in bottomlands along streams and ravines, as an understory tree in hardwood forests, often in dense thickets.
Leaves are 2.5 to 4 inches long, 1 to 2.5 inches wide, egg-shaped (elliptical), thin yet firm in texture, sharply double saw-toothed, sometimes long-pointed with a U-shaped base. Side veins tend to be parallel and not forked. Smooth, dull, dark blue-green above, and paler with hairs on veins and vein angles underneath. Turn orange to red in autumn.
Flowers appear in April before leaves, tiny, borne separately on the same tree. Male catkins are 1.25 to 1.5 inches long, drooping. Female are spikes or short catkins, reddish-green, paired in narrow catkins .5 to .75 inches long. This is the only native birch family species in which male catkins are not present in winter.
Tree Surgeon Lou Kingsley high in the crown of the National Champion American Hornbeam
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PHOTO David Yarrow 2001 |
Fruit is a tiny, quarter inch, hairy, greenish nutlet attached to the base of a three-lobed leafy bract, a number of which are arranged in a spiral in a 2 to 4 inch, conelike cluster, hanging on slender stalks, and maturing in late summer.
Bark is uniquely thin, smooth, dark bluish-grey, marked with distinctive furrows running up and down the trunk.
Twigs are reddish-brown, slender, tough, variably hairy or not, with a false end bud.
Buds are brown, lateral, somewhat square in cross section, with 8 to 12 scales in 4 rows, of two sorts: large flower buds, and small, more or less four-angled (square) leaf buds.
Wood is dense, hard, heavy, and hard to work, hence its common name Ironwood. Because of the tree's small size, the wood is little used except for firewood and charcoal, and for bows, handles, wedges, and sled runners.