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Hop Hornbeam
Ostrya virginiana
Distinguishing Features: Fruit clusters look like hops, bark is ropy and knotted on older trees
- Type: Deciduous
- Form at maturity: 30 to 50 feet tall, shape is ovate to pyramidal when young, older trees are rounded
- Leaf: Simple, alternate leaf arrangement, leaves are 2 Inches to 5 Inches long and half as wide, more or less oval shape to leaves, acuminate leaf tip, doubly serrate leaf margins, medium to dark green leaves, yellowish brown to orange in autumn
- Flower: Flowers are monoecious (reddish-brown male flowers and greenish female flowers appear in separate catkins on the same tree), male flowers are catkins in 3's
- Bark: Gray brown colored vertical strips which exfoliate at the ends, trunks and main branches develop a fluted or "muscle-like" appearance
- Fruit or Seed: Inflated, sac like pods in clusters, a hard nutlet is inside each pod, fruit clusters look like fruit of hops, fruit changes from green to tan
- Other:
Ostrya virginiana leaf
Ostrya virginiana fruit
