Eastern Hop-hornbeam, American Hophornbeam, Ironwood, Leverwood

It makes a good medium sized shade tree. It has handsome birch-like foliage that gets a good golden autumn color. It has handsome, intere...Read Moresting shaggy bark. It is slow growing, about 8 to 12"/yr, and develops a taproot so that it is grown only at a few big conventional nurseries. Native plant nurseries are a good source to buy it. It likes well-drained upland soils that are slightly acid or alkaline. It has a big native range over eastern North America. I've seen it as a common forest tree in different spots, not just everywhere, in northern Illinois.

Ostrya virginiana is a common tree throughout the eastern U.S. The common name "hornbeam" originated with farmers who used the de...Read Morense wood for oxen yokes; another (less-used) name for the tree is "Yoke-Elm"