American Hornbeam (A tree treatise)

 

The American hornbeam goes by many names.  Because of its smooth bark and similar leaves, Carpinus caroliniana, is often inaccurately called blue- or water-beech, though it actually falls into the birch family.  Some call it ironwood, but I’ve learned that name for another species entirely: Ostrya virginana.  The most common name, hornbeam, loosely translates to “hard tree,” comparing its wood to the hardness of a horn, and the Old English cognate of the German “baum,” meaning tree. 

The wood is extremely hard and has been used for tool handles and support poles, as well as bowls and dishes, as it does not crack or split, and has no flavor.  I even found a website that uses its wood to make wizard wands, boasting that hornbeam will bestow its handler with luck, healing, wisdom, divination, clairvoyance, and longevity.

The hornbeam is a monoecious tree, meaning that one tree has both male and female flowers.  Its seeds are an important food for squirrels, and its seeds, buds, and catkins are consumed by game birds such as the ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasants, bobwhite quail, ducks, and turkeys (not to mention warblers, as well).  The caterpillars of the tiger swallowtail, white admiral, and striped hairstreak butterflies feed on the leaves.

The inner bark may be used as an emetic and purgative.  The bark is astringent, and when boiled, can be used to bathe sore muscles.  An infusion of the bark can be held in the mouth to relieve the pain of a toothache.  It is also sometimes used as an herbal steam bath in the treatment of rheumatism.

This tree is said to be governed by the planet Mercury and, in myths from around the world, trees like hornbeam appear as ladders between worlds, as sources of life and wisdom, and as the physical forms of supernatural beings.  Some myths tell us that this is an immortal tree with the ability to live forever.

What I like most about the hornbeam, however, is its unique trunk and branches whose appearance give it my favorite name:  musclewood.  To me, this tree looks like the sculpted physique of a man who earns his build with honest work rather than weight training (no offense intended to my body building friends, of course).  I rarely walk through the small stand of musclewood in Kimberly Run Natural Area without bestowing a tree with at least a quick touch, if not even stopping to caress its bark and let my mind wander.