Photo by Jess Cole
Musclewood Tree, Carpinus carolinia
After recently spending many a vespertine haunt in a deer stand overlooking a colony of musclewood trees, it is safe to say I will never forget the particularities of this tree scattered amongst the beech and magnolias. Witnessing a tree be defoliated for hours on end, without distraction, you may also notice the muscular folds in the trunk, the seemingly erratic and contradictory branching of the limbs, the place in which this tree has chosen to thrive or not thrive. If you want to understand anything in the natural world, I simply suggest watching it for hours.
The musclewood tree, also known as the American Hornbeam, is an interesting understory tree that can handle light flooding and seemingly does well in drought. It is not seen enough in the nursery trade, and I believe has great potential within the designed landscape as well as the naturalistic garden. The common name, “hornbeam,” is a reference to its great heartiness; “horn” suggests toughness and “beam” being an old word for “tree.”
