BETULACEAE 
Hornbeam. Ironwood 
Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch 
HABIT.—A small tree usually 20-30 feet high, with a trunk 
diameter of 8-12 inches; forming a broad, rounded crown of 
many long, slender branches and a slender, stiff spray. 
LEAVES.—Alternate, simple, 3-5 inches long, about one- 
half as broad; oblong-ovate; sharply doubly serrate; thin and 
very tough; dull, dark green above, paler and more or less 
pubescent beneath; petioles short, slender, pubescent. 
FLOWERS.—April-May, with the leaves; monoecious; the 
staminate in drooping, cylindrical catkins from wood of the 
previous season, usually in threes; stamens 3-14, crowded on a 
hairy torus; the pistillate in erect, lax catkins on the season’s 
shoots, usually in pairs, each flower inclosed in a hairy, sac-like 
involucre. 
FRUIT.—September; strobiles, resembling clusters of hops, 
1-2 inches long, borne on slender, hairy stems; nuts small and 
flat, inclosed by sac-like involucres. 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud absent; lateral buds %{-%4 
inch long, ovoid, acute, red-brown. 
BARK.—Twigs at first light green, becoming lustrous, red- 
brown, and finally dull dark brown; thin, gray-brown on the 
trunk, very narrowly and longitudinally ridged. 
WOOD.—Heavy, very strong and hard, tough, close-grained, 
durable, light red-brown, with thick, whitish sapwood. 
DISTRIBUTION.—Common throughout the entire state. 
HABITAT.—Prefers dry, gravelly slopes and ridges. 
NOTES.—Often grows in shade of other trees. Not easily 
transplanted. Rather slow of growth. Too small for street use. 
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