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 1/8-1/4 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.