American Hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana

Carpinus caroliniana, commonly called American hornbeam, is a slow-growing, deciduous, small to medium-sized understory tree with an attractive globular form.  It typically grows to 20-35' tall. The smooth, gray trunk and larger branches of a mature tree exhibit a distinctive muscle-like fluting that has given rise to another common name of musclewood for this tree.

The American Hornbeam is a short, stubby tree that can have one or more trunks, each a foot wide.  The bark is bluish-gray, thin, fairly smooth, and heavily fluted. 

The extremely hard wood of this tree will, as the common name suggests, take a horn-like polish and was once used by early Americans to make bowls, tool handles and ox yokes. Commercial use of hornbeam wood is not practicable, however, due to the limited amount of wood that can be harvested per tree. This plant is moderately resistant to damage from deer.

Fire Risk: This plant has a low flammability rating.

Seasons of Interest: 

     Leaves:   Fall     Bloom:  Early spring     Fruit/Seed/Nut:  Fall

Insects, Diseases, or Other Plant Problems:  Leaf spots, cankers, and twig blight are occasional disease problems of the American hornbeam.

Quick ID Hints:

• alternate leaves, simple
• older bark is slate gray with muscle appearance
• leaves weakly doubly serrate, parallel veinss
• inverted pins
• fruits a nutlet on 3-lobed bract, lobes basal

Small, multi stemmed, deciduous, bushy shrub, or single stem tree 

Older branches develop a slate gray, smooth, irregularly fluted appearance; overall appearance is similar to a flexed bicep muscle, hence the common name muscle wood. 

Difficult to transplant, best moved in spring. Does well in rich moist slightly acid soils. Does well in heavy shade and is found as an understory tree in forests.