| Description | American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) small native tree, found many times growing as an understory. The stem has a muscle-like shape. |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | (kar-PI-nus)(ka-ro-lin-i-A-na) |
| Plant Type | Trees Deciduous, Site author's observations |
| Hardiness Zone | (2)3-9 |
| Sunlight | full, shade tolerent |
| Moisture | average, does well on moist soils and will tolerate flooding |
| Soil & Site | average, moist |
| Flowers | wind pollinated |
| Leaves | green during summer with yellow to oranges fall color |
| Stems | bark is smooth, gray and fluted, wood very hard and heavy, zig zag twigs |
| Roots | shallow rooted |
| Dimensions | 20-30 feet growing in good sites, single or multiple stems |
| Propagation | seeds need to be warm and cold stratified |
| Native Site | Native to North America and Canada |
| Misc Facts | Hop Hornbeam comes from "horn" for toughness and "beam" an old word for tree. aka Iron Wood |
| Author's Notes | Every spring I like to walk through the Martins Woods Conservancy in Big Bend, Wisconsin (USA). This tree is prominent as an understory and many have the muscle like ridges on the stem. The area they grow is moist and shaded. |
| Notes & Reference | #01-Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (Michael Dirr), #181-Native Trees for North America (Guy Sternberg), #184-Michigan Trees (Burton V. Barnes, Warren H. Wagner) |
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