Bluebeech, American Hornbeam or Musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana)

Form

Small tree or shrub; height rarely 30 feet, spreading, rounded, bushy crown; trunk often short and characteristically irregularly fluted; resembles muscles of a flexed arm.

Bark

Thin, smooth; light, gray-brown to slate-gray, sometimes marked with broad, dark-brown horizontal banks.

Leaf

Alternate; oval, long-pointed, double-toothed along margin; length 2 to 3 inches; veins prominent in herringbone pattern; pale, blue-green and smooth above, light yellow-green below.

Flower

Blossoms in April and May.

Fruit

Nutlet about 1/3 inch long, attached to a 3-lobed leaf-like bract; bracts are clustered together on a hanging stalk; bract may act as wing in aiding seed distribution by wing; fruit ripens in August.

Range

Found over the entire state, usually on rich moist soils and well-drained soils in the shade of other trees.

Wood

Tough, close-grained, heavy, very hard and strong; light brown, with thick white sapwood. The tree is of no commercial importance, but in the past the wood was used for levers, tool handles, wooded cogs, mallets, wedges and fuel.

Notes

Also known as Water Beech.