Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Common forest trees of North Carolina

items 34 of 80 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-9694.jpg
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  • •ffl&cz&Msz-e> .-e> T TREES -e> ■#%><?!!- HORNBEAM (Carpinus caroliniana Walt.) THE hornbeam, often known as ironwood and occasionally as water beech, is a small, slow- growing, bushy tree with a spreading top of slender, crooked, or drooping branches. It is found along streams and in low ground throughout the State. Its height is usually from 20 to 30 feet and its diameter 4 to 8 inches, although it sometimes grows larger. The trunk is fluted with irregular ridges extending up and down the tree. The bark is light brownish gray to dark bluish gray in color, sometimes marked with dark bands extending horizontally on the trunk. The leaves are simple, Twig one-half HORNBEAM alternate, oval, long- pointed, doubly toothed along the margin, 2 or 3 inches in length. They resemble those of the black or sweet birch, but are smaller. natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size. The flowers are borne in catkins separately on the same tree; the male catkin about iy2 inches long, the female about three-fourths of an inch, with small, leaf-like, 3-lobed green scales. The fruit is a nutlet about one-third of an inch long. It falls, attached to the leaf-like scale which acts as a wing in aiding its distribution by the wind. The wood is tough, close-grained, heavy and strong. It is sometimes selected for use for levers, tool handles, wooden cogs, mallets, wedges, etc. The tree is of little commercial importance and often occupies space in the woods that should be utilized by more valuable kinds. 32
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