Florida Forest Trees

Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)

Hophornbeam is a small tree that inhabits hardwood forests. You can find hophornbeam growing near the edges of swamps, streams, and rivers in bottomland hammocks. Its range is throughout the midwestern and eastern United States from northern Florida to southeastern Canada.

Because hophornbeam is not a large tree, it lacks economic importance. The wood is similar to hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) in its density and strength. It was also used to make tool handles for mallets and posts. Hophornbeam is known to have wildlife resource value to songbirds, grouse, squirrels, and white-tailed deer.
  

Twigs, leaves, and fruits


Hophornbeam can be confused with another member of the Betulaceae family, hornbeam. The fruits are the key traits. Nuts of the hophornbeam hang in drooping clusters of papery, bladder-like sacs. Hornbeam has nutty fruits arranged in hanging clusters, also. However, the clusters are stacks of nuts attached to leaf-like, 3-lobed bracts.

The bark is another feature used to distinguish between these two birches. Hophornbeam has loose strips of reddish brown to gray creating a rough, "clawed" bark. Hornbeam has a smooth bark with an undulating texture resembling a "muscular" appearance.

 Identifying Characteristics
Size/Form:
 Hophornbeam is a medium tree that reaches heights of 20' to 30'. It has a round-topped, vaselike crown and a columnar trunk.
Leaves:
 The leaves are simple, alternately arranged, deciduous, and 2" to 4" long by 1½" to 2½" wide. The oblong shaped leaves usually have dark yellow-green upper surfaces while the underneath surfaces are paler and have tufts of hair near the midvein. The leaf base is rounded or wedged, sometimes unequal, and the tip tapers to a long point. The leaf margin is doubly serrated with fine teeth.
Fruit:
 The fruit is a small, brown nut that is ¼" long. The nuts are clustered in
a conelike form. In the drooping clusters each nut is enclosed in a papery sac.
Bark:
 The reddish-brown to gray-brown bark is rough. Old trunks are shaggy where the platelike ridges appear to be shedding.
Habitat:
 Hophornbeam grows on the banks and fertile soils of bottomland hardwoods, usually on the edges of swamps, streams, and rivers. Other associated species include hornbeam, red maple, sycamore, swamp chestnut oak, redbud, and sumac.


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Bark
Leaf and Fruit

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