276 TKEES IN" WINTER 



HOP HORNBEAM 

 Ironwood, Leverwood, Deerwood. 



Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch. 



HABIT — A small tree 25-40 ft. in height with a trunk diameter of 

 generally less than 1 ft.; branches long-, slender, those below widely 

 spreading and often drooping but with branchlets tending upward 

 forming an irregular oblong or broadly ovate head often as broad ac 

 .all, with slender stiff spray. 



BARK — Thin, flaky, light grayish-brown broken into narrow flattish 

 pieces, loose at the ends. 



TAVIGS — Slender, 1-2 mm. in thickness, dark, reddish-brown, often 

 zigzag, for the most part smooth and shining. LENTICELS — scattered, 

 pale. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, 2-ranked, minute, 1.75 mm. or less in 

 diameter, flattened, elliptical, projecting. STIPULE-SCARS — triangular, 

 rather inconspicuous. BUNDLE-SCARS — generally 3, inconspicuous; if 

 scar is surface-sectioned, 5 bundle-scars are evident. 



BUDS — Small, 3-7 mm. long, narrowly ovate, pointed, light reddish- 

 brown, smooth or somewhat finely downy, slightly gummy especially 

 within, generally strongly divergent; terminal bud absent. BUD-SCALES 

 — in 4 ranks, about 8 scales visible, increasing in size from below 

 upwards, longitudinally striate if viewed toward light. 



FRUIT — A small seed-like nutlet, enclosed in an inflated sac-like 

 veiny bract, long-hairy at base; the fruits aggregated together in a 

 hop-like cluster about 7 cm. long, with stalks often hairy, generally 

 falling before winter. Young staminate catkins abundantly present, 

 cylindrical, usually in 3's, their scales bristle-pointed. 



COMPARISONS — The Hop Hornbeam from its general appearance and 

 bark character is sometimes mistaken for a young Elm. The scales of 

 the bark, however, are narrower and more flaky; the leaf-scars are 

 smaller and the bundle-scars are not sunken, the bud-scales are in 4 

 ranks and the staminate flowers are borne in catkins which are gener- 

 ally present on the tree in winter. For differences between the Hop 

 Hornbeam and the American Hornbeam, see under latter species. 



DISTRIBUTION — In rather open woods and along highlands. Novi, 

 Scotia to Lake Superior, scattered throughout the whole country east of 

 the Mississippi, ranging through western Minnesota to Nebraska, 

 Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — common in all parts. 



WOOD — Strong, hard, tough, durable, light brown and tinged with 

 red or often nearly white, with thick pale sapwood of 40-50 layers of 

 annual growth, used for fence posts, levers, handles of tools, mallets and 

 other small articles. 



