Hophornbeam

Ostrya virginiana

Hophornbeam 

Hophornbeam, also commonly known as Ironwood, produces one of the hardest and most resilient of North America’s native woods, making it a great material for items like fenceposts and wooden longbows. It was even at one time used to make runners for sleighs. Unfortunately, the hophornbeam is a small and short-lived tree with a slow-medium growth rate, which makes it not nearly abundant enough for heavy commercial use outside of its local range. 

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Hophornbeam Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch  

COMMON NAMES hophornbeam, eastern hophornbeam, ironwood  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves alternate, simple, two-ranked, thin, margin doubly serrate, lateral veins divide at the leaf margin; buds green and brown striped; fruit hoplike; bark red-brown and shreddy.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are alternate, simple, deciduous, two-ranked, ovate to lanceolate, 5-13 cm (2.0-5.1 in) long, and thin; apex is acute or acuminate; base is cordate; margin is doubly serrate; lateral veins divide near the leaf margin; underside and petiole are pubescent; autumn color is yellow. Twigs zigzag and are red-brown, slender, and pubescent or glabrous; leaf scar is crescent shaped to round with three bundle scars. A true terminal bud is lacking; lateral bud is ovoid-acute, about 6 mm (0.2 in) long, and divergent; scales are overlapping and green and brown striped, or sometimes red-brown. Flowers are imperfect and bloom in the spring; staminate catkins are up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long and drooping; pistillate catkins have obscure forked red stigmas at the tips of new shoots. Fruit is a nutlet enclosed in a hoplike inflated sac that is about 2 cm (0.8 in) long, and matures in late summer. Bark is gray-brown to red-brown and scaly or shreddy. The growth form is usually only up to 12 m (40 ft) in height but can be larger in bottoms.  

HABITAT A wide variety of sites and soils but common near streams, in floodplains, and on moist cool slopes in many forest cover types.  

NOTES Hophornbeam is usually an understory tree found with a variety of forest associates. The wood is whitish and hard and is used for mallets, tool handles, specialty items, and fence posts. The seed is eaten by wild turkey, songbirds, and small to midsize mammals. It is occasionally browsed by white-tailed deer. The buds and catkins are eaten in winter by many birds, squirrels, and rabbits.  

Ostrya is Latin for “a tree with hard wood”; virginiana refers to the geographic range.