Ostrya virginiana
Ostrya
American hophornbeam, bois de fer, eastern hop hornbeam, hop-hornbeam, ironwood, ostryer de virginie
hop-hornbeam
grayish brown or steel gray, shredding into narrow, sometimes rather ragged, vertical strips.
of trunk and branches brownish gray to light brown, thin, smooth, breaking and shredding into shaggy vertical strips and scales;
lenticels generally inconspicuous.
, branchlets, and twigs conspicuously 2-ranked;
young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots.
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.
blade narrowly ovate to ovate, elliptic, or obovate with 10 or more pairs of lateral veins, 2.5–13 × 1.5–6 cm, thin, margins doubly serrate to serrulate;
surfaces abaxially glabrous to tomentose.
staminate catkins 2–5 cm; pistillate catkins 0.8–1.5 cm.
staminate catkins terminal on branches, mostly in small, racemose clusters, formed previous growing season and exposed during winter, expanding with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate on short, lateral, leafy new growth, solitary, ± erect, elongate, bracts and flowers uncrowded.
in catkins 3 per bract, crowded together on pilose receptacle;
stamens 3(–6), short;
filaments often divided part way to base;
anthers divided into 2 parts, each 1-locular, apex pilose.
2 per bract.
3.5–6.5 × 2–2.5 cm;
bracts 1–1.8 × 0.8–1 cm.
loosely imbricate, strobiloid clusters of closed inflated bracts;
clusters pendulous, elongate;
bracts deciduous with fruit, inflated, bladderlike, each bract enclosing 1 fruit.
small nutlets, ovoid, longitudinally ribbed, often crowned with persistent sepals and styles.
with leaves in late spring.
nearly white to light brown, very hard and heavy, texture fine.
buds sessile, ovoid, somewhat laterally compressed, apex acute;
scales many, imbricate, longitudinally striate.
= 8.
= 16.
Ostrya virginiana
Ostrya
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.)
Species ca. 5 (3 in the flora).
In North America Ostrya consists of small trees in the northern temperate deciduous forest zone and in the mountains of southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico. Mexican populations have generally been treated as conspecific with O. virginiana of eastern United States and Canada. They differ in various respects, however, including leaf shape and indumentum; the morphologic variation and phytogeography of the complex as a whole should be carefully examined. Ostrya carpinifolia Scopoli is a common and important forest tree of southern Europe.
Ostrya shares many features with Carpinus. The staminate catkins in most species of Ostrya are produced the season before anthesis but, unlike Carpinus, they are exposed during the winter. Dispersal occurs as it does in Carpinus, except that the bracts form closed, bladderlike structures rather than flat wings.
The wood of Ostrya is used for fuel, fence posts, and various other purposes. It was formerly utilized for manufacturing items subject to prolonged friction, including sleigh runners, wheel rims, and airplane propellers. Because of its hardness, it has been used for tool handles, mallet heads, and other hard wooden objects.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaf blade (5–)8–10(–13) cm, apex usually abruptly acuminate; infructescences 3.5–6.5 cm; e, nc United States, adjacent Canada. | O. virginiana |
1. Leaf blade 2.5–6.5 cm, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded; infructescences 2–4 cm; sw United States. | → 2 |
2. Leaf blade ovate or broadly ovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic to nearly orbiculate; petiole and young twigs often bearing stipitate glands; staminate catkins 2–3 cm; w Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. | O. knowltonii |
2. Leaf blade elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate; petiole and young twigs without stipitate glands; staminate catkins 3.5–5 cm; endemic to Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas. | O. chisosensis |
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