{"id":11941,"date":"2015-09-18T01:39:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T08:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11941"},"modified":"2015-09-11T06:56:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T13:56:13","slug":"hornbeam-root-and-branch-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/articles\/trees-and-shrubs\/tree-root-and-branch\/hornbeam-root-and-branch-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornbeam &#8211; Root and Branch Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Beneath the hornbeam on a summer afternoon by pcgn7, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/21204781@N07\/3791917113\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3515\/3791917113_0a9dba6cdb.jpg\" alt=\"Beneath the hornbeam on a summer afternoon\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The name Hornbeam derives from &#8216;hard tree&#8217; a reference to the property of the extremely tough wood.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Features of the Hornbeam<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Latin name<\/strong> Carpinus Betulus other common names Ironwood, American hornbeam, blue-beech, or musclewood<\/li>\n<li><strong>Height<\/strong> up to 80 feet spread useful for hedges<\/li>\n<li><strong>Type of tree<\/strong> &#8211; Deciduous &#8211; dictoyledons<\/li>\n<li><strong>Leaves <\/strong> &#8211; Dark green, oval, double toothed with ridges.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flowers<\/strong> Male and female catkins on the same tree<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fruit <\/strong> Ribbed nut held in a three leaved bract<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bark<\/strong> Silver grey and smooth<\/li>\n<li><strong>Family<\/strong> Corylaceae related to Birch and Hazels<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Origins and Distribution of the Hornbeam<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Found in Europe and China.<\/li>\n<li>Other species are also found in America.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Uses and Commercial Attributes of Hornbeam<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Traditionally the hard white wood was used for Ox yokes, tools, butchers blocks and mill cogs.<\/li>\n<li>Can be coppiced for charcoal production.<\/li>\n<li>Chess peices and piano actions can be made from Hornbeam<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Gardeners Tips for the Hornbeam<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Makes a good stout hedge and retains leaves through autumn.<\/li>\n<li>Hornbeam tolerate quite deep shade.<\/li>\n<li>Make good bonsai subjects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Hornbeam with mushrooms by OpenEye, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/openeye\/4902302257\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4134\/4902302257_47321d748f.jpg\" alt=\"Hornbeam with mushrooms\" width=\"444\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Other types of Hornbeam and Species<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Oriental Hornbeam Carpinus orientalis occurs in southeast Europe and southwest Asia<\/li>\n<li>The Japanese Hornbeam Carpinus japonica is similar to Carpinus orientalis<\/li>\n<li>The North American species, American Hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana is similar to Carpinus betulus in leaf size and shape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Hornbeam comments from elsewhere<\/h2>\n<p>Hornbeams were once coppiced and pollarded (cut back to promote new growth) on a regular basis in its native woodlands of south and south-east Britain. Epping Forest in Essex, where this practice took place, is now protected and is home to thousands of hornbeams that live alongside oak, beech, birch and holly trees.<\/p>\n<p>One of the reasons Carpinus betulus can live in such close proximity to these large trees is that it is extremely tolerant to shade. However, it prefers a warm climate and does not live above 600 metres, restricting its natural habitat to the more southerly parts of Britain. <a href=\"http:\/\/apps.kew.org\/trees\/?page_id=78\">Kew Gardens<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11946\" title=\"Hornbeam leaf\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Hornbeam-leaf.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Hornbeam-leaf.jpg 442w, https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Hornbeam-leaf-221x300.jpg 221w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=12342\"> fact sheets<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Credits<br \/>\nBeneath the hornbeam on a summer afternoon by pcgn7 CC BY-NC 2.0<br \/>\n&#8220;Hornbeam with mushrooms by OpenEye CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<br \/>\nHornbeam leaf the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hornbeams for hedging or Bonsai or as a good tree in mixed broadleaved woodland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-11941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tree-root-and-branch","tag-best-british"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}