Part 12

Other Names: Ironwood; American Hornbeam; Musclewood.

Growth Form: Up to 30 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 1½ feet; crown rounded.

Bark: Smooth, blue-gray, ridged, appearing “muscular.”

Twigs: Slender, difficult to break, reddish-brown, smooth or finely hairy; leaf scars alternate, crescent-shaped, elevated, with 3 bundle traces.

Buds: Small, angular, tapering to a short point.

Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades thin, pointed at the tip, usually rounded at the base, 2-4 inches long and about half as wide, finely doubly toothed, the upper surface smooth, the lower surface either smooth or hairy; leafstalks up to ½ inch long, hairy.

Flowers: Staminate and pistillate on same tree but in different catkins, opening during May.

Fruit: Nutlets borne at the base of a three-lobed green “leaf,” crowded together into a fruiting cluster.

Wood: Strong and hard, hence the name Ironwood.

Use: Tool handles.

Habitat: Moist woods.

Range: Nova Scotia across to central Minnesota, south to eastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas, east to central Florida.

Distinguishing Features: Several other trees may be confused with the Blue Beech. Beech, which has smooth gray bark, has leaves with fewer teeth and twigs with pointed buds. Hop Hornbeam, with very similar leaves, has a flaky bark. The elms, which also have somewhat similar leaves, usually have the leaves asymmetrical at the base.

WATER HICKORY Carya aquatica (Michx. f.) Nutt.

Growth Form: Medium tree to 75 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2 feet; crown narrow.

Bark: Reddish-brown, furrowed, becoming somewhat scaly at maturity.

Twigs: Slender, reddish-brown or gray, smooth or occasionally slightly hairy; leaf scars alternate, 3-lobed, scarcely elevated, with several bundle traces.

Buds: Pointed, reddish-brown with yellow scales, usually hairy, up to ¼ inch long.

Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with 7-17 leaflets; leaflets lance-shaped, curved, pointed at the tip, tapering to the asymmetrical base, up to 5 inches long, up to 2 inches wide, finely toothed along the edges, dark green and smooth or nearly so on the upper surface, brownish and smooth or somewhat hairy on the lower surface.

Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing when the leaves are partly grown, the staminate several in slender, drooping catkins up to 3 inches long, the pistillate fewer, in shorter spikes, neither type with petals.

Fruit: Short-ellipsoid, usually tapering to either end, flattened, up to 1½ inches long and two-thirds as broad, the husk 4-winged, dark brown but with yellow scales, thin, splitting only about halfway to the base, the nut flattened, 4-angled, reddish-brown, the shell thin, the seed bitter.

Wood: Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, dark brown.

Uses: Fence posts, fuel.

Habitat: Swampy woods and drained floodplains.

Range: Virginia across to southeastern Missouri, south to Texas, east to Florida.

Distinguishing Features: Water Hickory is similar to Pecan and Bitternut Hickory in having 7 or more leaflets per leaf. However, it lacks the yellow buds of the Bitternut Hickory and the slender, edible nut of the Pecan. The leaves are generally hairier than those of the Pecan.

BITTERNUT HICKORY Carya cordiformis (Wang.) K. Koch

Other Name: Yellow-bud Hickory.