Eastern Hophornbeam - Ostrya virginiana

Betulaceae - Birch Family
"A Year With the Trees" Tree Number 18
Eastern Hophornbeam
Ostrya virginiana

Winter

This Hophornbeam lives at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina.  These catkins stay on the tree through the winter to help identify this tree.

Eastern Hophornbeam Bark has long shredded pieces of bark.

The Hophornbeam Tree

Spring

Ostrya virginiana

This Hophornbeam lives at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina.

The leaves are doubly saw toothed and elliptical; they are simple and alternate. The leaves have straight parallel side veins and short hairy leaf stalks. The bark of this tree is reddish brown, thin, and often looks shreddy. The wood is very hard, like the American Hornbeam. This tree grows to 50 feet high and 10 inches in diameter, so it is not a very large tree. It is called a understory tree, for it grows in the understory.

The fruit looks like hops, an ingredient of beer. Wildlife eat the nutlets and buds of this tree.


Summer

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ostrya_virginiana_fruit.jpg

Fall

Hophornbeam leaf art in my journal.  These leaf edges are called  doubly serrate.

Ostrya virginiana fruit nutlet, Eastern Hophornbeam
Photo by Brooke Priddy Conrad

Ostrya virginiana catkin buds, Eastern Hophornbeam
Photo by Brooke Priddy Conrad

The North Carolina Arboretum has five beautiful Eastern Hophornbeams that live near the amphitheater at the NC Arboretum.  This family is known by the leaves that are sharp toothed, simple and pinnately veined.  This family is also known for the long, staminate catkins.

This time of year you can see the fruit as well as the developing catkins.  The leaves are just starting to turn on these trees to a bright yellow. 

For the love of the Trees,
Becky

Seams and me at the North Carolina Arboreum in Asheville on a beautiful day in Sept.
Photo by Brooke Priddy Conrad