Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

General Information Common Name  European Hornbeam Scientific Name  Carpinus betulus Sun Tolerance  Full Sun Height  12–15 m (40–60 ft) Spread  9–12 m (30–40 ft) Growth Rate  Slow Bloom Time  Spring Color  Green, Yellow Flower Color  Green Type  Tree Native  Western Asia and Europe

Classification Kingdom  Plantae – Plants Subkingdom  Tracheobionta – Vascular plants Superdivision  Spermatophyta – Seed plants Division  Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants Class  Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons Subclass  Hamamelididae Order  Fagales Family  Betulaceae – Birch family Genus  Carpinus L. – hornbeam Species  C. betulus

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus Commonly known as Hornbeam is native to Western Asia and Europe, including southern England. Hornbeam in winter is frequently passed by as beech, to which it has many resemblances except that the trunk is nearly always fluted and the buds on the young shoots are slightly appraised. At other seasons the curious fruiting catkins and the saw-toothed margins of the leaves which follow them help in differentiation. Hornbeam is usually as a one-time coppiced or pollarded (often gnarled) medium-sized tree, but isolated specimens can sometimes be found in the most unexpected places.  It grows 12-15 m (40-60 ft) in height.

The young shoots are very slender and turn from green to brown. They carry pale brown slender winter buds, set alternately, and slightly bent inwards on the younger shoots. The 1-2 inch long leaves, usually ovate and with more prominent parallel veins than beech, have sharply and doubly saw-toothed margins, and are dull green on top, paler and yellowier underneath. They turn a rich yellow in autumn and on young trees below a height of about 10 feet the spent brown leaves often persist throughout the winter.

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam
The flowers appear in April along with the opening leaves. The pendent green male catkins, borne on the previous year’s twigs, carry about ten stamens, on filaments divided below the anthers, which are orange in color when they ripen. The female catkins, borne with the current season’s growth, are much shorter than the males, and have slender crimson styles protruding from beneath long, narrow, recurring bracts, each of which carries two flowers. The small nutlike fruits, hard, flattened, and ribbed, are subtended by a large three-lobed or dagger-shaped papery appendage consisting of bract and bracteoles (secondary bracts) fused together. They ripen by October and persist after the leaves fall, draping the tree in brown.

The bole and some branches are usually fluted or prominently ribbed and have smooth, pale grey bark, often with a bright metallic sheen. The almost white wood is very hard, heavy and tough – hence its name which means ‘horny tree’. It was formerly used for ox-yokes, cogs, mallets and wooden screws, and still serves as butchers’ chopping blocks.

Hornbeam makes a good hedge. It is becoming less plentiful in woods because many of its habitats are being taken to raise crops of more profitable forest trees.

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam : Leaves

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam 

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam : Flowers

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam : Fruits in Autumn

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam in Autumn

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam : Autumn

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam

Carpinus betulus – European Hornbeam : Autumn