Hornbeam Hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus "Carpinus" in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The common English name "hornbeam" derives from the hardness of the woods (likened to "horn") and the Old English "beam" "tree" (cognate with German "Baum"). The "American hornbeam" is also occasionally known as "blue-beech", "ironwood", or "musclewood", the first from the resemblance of the bark to that of the American beech "Fagus grandifolia", the other two from the hardness of the wood and the muscular appearance of the trunk, respectively.
Chrysolepis three sweet, edible nuts, eaten by the indigenous peoples. The fruit also provides food for birds and wildlife. "Chrysolepis" is related to the subtropical southeast Asian genus "Castanopsis" (in which it was formerly included), but differs in the nuts being triangular and fully enclosed in a sectioned cupule, and in having bisexual catkins. "Chrysolepis" also differs from another allied genus "Castanea" (chestnuts), in nuts that take 14–16 months to mature (3–5 months in "Castanea"), evergreen leaves and the shoots having a terminal bud. There are two species of "Chrysolepis" — "Chrysolepis chrysophylla" and "Chrysolepis sempervirens" — which like many species