Loose-flower Hornbeam
Carpinus laxiflora · Betulaceae · 서어나무
How to spot it
The gray trunk is lumpy like muscle, and hanging fruit clusters have asymmetric bracts toothed on one side only.
Look
- Leaves
- Elliptic or long egg-shaped, 4 to 6 (7.5) cm long and 2 to 3 (4) cm wide, with a long tail-like tip and double teeth. There are 10 to 12 pairs of lateral veins; the leaves emerge reddish, turn green, and turn red in autumn.
- Flowers
- Flowers open in April to May before the leaves. Male flowers are reddish yellow with 8 stamens; the female catkin is 4 to 8 cm long on a stalk, with two green stigmas.
- Fruit
- The fruit cluster is 4 to 8 cm long and 1.8 cm across, stalked and hanging. Bracts are 1 to 1.7 cm long with notched teeth on one side, and the small nutlets, broadly egg-shaped and 3 mm long, mature in October.
- Bark
- Gray, smooth bark that is lumpy like muscles. Small twigs are reddish brown.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Also found in Japan and China; in Korea it grows at 100 to 1,000 m elevation in Gangwon-teukbyeoljachi-do and south of Hwanghae-do.
- Ecology
- Grows in mountains, is strongly cold-hardy and shade tolerant, and develops well as secondary forest below pine and deciduous broad-leaved forest on mid-slopes and lower. Salt tolerance is high, but pollution resistance and sprouting ability are weak. The source names the hornbeam as the dominant species of Korea's temperate climax forest.