The hornbeams
You’d probably never expect it from the discipline of dendrology, so
this may come as a big shock; there’s some confusion between the next
two species concerning their common names. In some books and
references one is named ironwood and the other hornbeam, while in
different books or references it may be flipped the other way. At
other times and in other places one is referred to as hornbeam and the
other hophornbeam. So this calls for resorting to something
extreme—scientific names.
While many plants and animals have variations in their common names,
especially in different parts of their ranges, the scientific name is
intended to be a reliable standard that eliminates confusion. So then
it’s final—no confusion. Except that it’s not final and there still
is confusion. The moral here is that if you haven’t already become
cynical and suspicious, you should be. It turns out that
taxonomists—biology specialists who classify and name things—get
together from time to time and tamper with and change the scientific
names. The good news is that, as of this writing, these two trees
don’t seem to be much in contention on that front. (Just a note: by
convention, the first term in scientific names is capitalized and the
second is lowercase, and both are italicized.)
American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)
The American hornbeam is a small tree in the birch family. It has
black birch-like leaves and produces catkins. One distinction between
the American hornbeam and the birches is that catkins in the birches
develop and are on the trees, in the closed condition, during the
winter and they open in the spring. In the American hornbeam the
catkins are not pre-formed but develop in the spring. The fruit is a
cluster of bracts that bear seeds. The American hornbeam’s trunk is
distinctive, too. The bark is very tight and it typically features
ripples suggestive of flexed and toned muscles. This characteristic
leads to one of the alternate names for the American hornbeam—musclewood.
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American Hornbeam leaf |
American Hornbeam fruit |
Eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
Often called ironwood due to its extremely hard and dense wood, the
hophornbeam is another small tree in the birch family. It has simple,
black birch-like leaves. Unlike the American hornbeam, the
hophornbeam produces preformed male flowers or catkins that are on the
tree during the winter and open in spring. The female flowers develop
in the spring. Eastern hophornbeam’s bark, when mature, forms shreds.
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Eastern Hophornbeam leaves and fruit
W.D. Brush @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
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Eastern Hophornbeam bark
W.D. Brush @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database |
Honeylocust
The honeylocust (all one word and before the advent of the internet)
is a tree in the legume family, the family of plants that includes
such familiar staple foods as beans and peas. The honeylocust has
what dendrologists call
pinnately compound leaves and, at times, even bipinnately compound
leaves. This means that what would otherwise be a single, contiguous
leaf is divided into separate leaflets and sometimes the leaflets are
even divided again. Think fern, since many ferns have these kinds of
lacey divisions in their fronds or leaves. The point is that, when
traced back to the twig—as with any compound leaf in trees—the actual
leaf has a rachis or leaf stem that is typically not woody, and it is
connected directly to the woody twig. Whew.
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Honeylocust leaves and fruit |
Honeylocust may have thorns on its twigs and even on the trunk. The
thorns can be single or branched into three points. A thornless
variety is often planted in landscaped settings. Honeylocust’s
natural range extends into Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama but it isn’t
naturally an extreme southeastern tree. It is so widely planted
beyond its range, though, that it turned up in this account.
Cabbage palmetto
The cabbage palmetto or cabbage palm is one of a number of palm trees
native to the Southeast. It grows to be up to about 80 feet tall and
has fan-shaped leaves that emerge directly from the trunk, so there is
no branch and twig between the trunk and the leaf as in trees like
oaks, hickories, and maples.
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Cabbage palmetto trees along the Myakka River
in Florida |
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This may look like a close-up of a small moss
plant but it's actually a shot of cabbage palm treetops from an
observation tower. |
