Ostrya virginiana
American hophornbeam, bois de fer, eastern hop hornbeam, hop-hornbeam, ironwood, ostryer de virginie
grayish brown or steel gray, shredding into narrow, sometimes rather ragged, vertical strips.
sparsely pubescent to densely velutinous.
blade narrowly ovate or elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, (5–)8–10(–13) × 4–5(–6) cm, base narrowly rounded to cordate or cuneate, margins sharply and unevenly doubly serrate, apex usually abruptly acuminate, sometimes acute or gradually tapering;
surfaces abaxially sparsely to moderately pubescent (or sometimes densely villous), especially on major veins.
staminate catkins 2–5 cm; pistillate catkins 0.8–1.5 cm.
3.5–6.5 × 2–2.5 cm;
bracts 1–1.8 × 0.8–1 cm.
with leaves in late spring.
= 16.
Ostrya virginiana
The shaggy bark and winter-exposed terminal staminate catkins of Ostrya virginiana permit easy recognition of this characteristic tree of dryish eastern forests. Along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Ostrya virginiana, like Carpinus caroliniana, has smaller, blunter, often more pubescent leaves (O. virginiana var. lasia Fernald). This variety has not been studied carefully; from the available material, however, it does not seem as distinct as the coastal subspecies in C. caroliniana.
Native Americans used Ostrya virginiana medicinally to treat toothache, to bathe sore muscles, for hemorrhages from lungs, for coughs, kidney trouble, female weakness, cancer of the rectum, consumption, and flux (D. E. Moerman 1986).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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