''Ostrya'' is a
genus of eight to 10 small
deciduous trees belonging to the birch family
Betulaceae. Common names include hop-hornbeam and hophornbeam. It may also be called
ironwood, a name shared with a number of other plants.
The genus is native in southern
Europe, southwest and eastern
Asia, and
North and
Central America.
[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families]
/ref> They have a conical or irregular crown and a scaly, rough bark. They have alternate and double-toothed birch-like leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
3–10 cm long. The flowers are produced in spring, with male catkins
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in ''Salix''). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged cl ...
5–10 cm long and female aments 2–5 cm long. The fruit form in pendulous clusters 3–8 cm long with 6–20 seeds; each seed is a small nut
Nut often refers to:
* Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds
* Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt
Nut or Nuts may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...
2–4 mm long, fully enclosed in a bladder-like involucre.
The wood is very hard and heavy. The genus name ''Ostrya'' is derived from the Greek word (), which may be related to () "shell (of an animal)". Regarded as a weed tree by some foresters, this hard and stable wood was historically used to fashion plane
Plane(s) most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant
* Planes (gen ...
soles.
''Ostrya'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...
species, including winter moth, walnut sphinx, and '' Coleophora ostryae''.
Species
''Ostrya'' has the following species:[
# '' Ostrya carpinifolia'' Scop. – European hop-hornbeam - Mediterranean region of southern Europe, Middle-east, Turkey, Lebanon, Caucasus
# '' Ostrya chisosensis'' Correll – Chisos hophornbeam, Big Bend hophornbeam - endemic to ]Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is an American national park located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States, and was named after ...
in Texas
# '' Ostrya japonica'' Sarg. – Japanese hophornbeam - Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Korea, northern China
# '' Ostrya knowltonii'' Coville – Knowlton hophornbeam, western hophornbeam, wolf hophornbeam - Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
# '' Ostrya multinervis'' Rehd. – Central Chinese hop-hornbeam - central China
# '' Ostrya rehderiana'' Chun – Zhejiang hop-hornbeam - Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...
in China
#'' Ostrya trichocarpa'' D.Fang & Y.S.Wang – Guangxi Province in China
# '' Ostrya virginiana'' (Mill.) K. Koch – eastern hophornbeam, American hophornbeam, ironwood - eastern US, eastern Canada, Mexico, Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
, El Salvador
El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...
, Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
# '' Ostrya yunnanensis'' W.K.Hu – Yunnan hop-hornbeam - Yunnan Province in China
# †'' Ostrya oregoniana'' (fossil)
# †''Ostrya scholzii
''Ostrya'' is a genus of eight to 10 small deciduous trees belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. Common names include hop-hornbeam and hophornbeam. It may also be called ironwood, a name shared with a number of other plants.
The genus is na ...
'' (fossil)
Fossil record
†''Ostrya scholzii'' fossil seeds of the Chattian
The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale, the younger of two ages or upper of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . The Chattian is preceded by the Rupelian and is followed by the Aquitanian (the lowest stage ...
stage, Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
, are known from the Oberleichtersbach Formation in the Rhön Mountains
The Rhön Mountains () are a group of low mountains (or ''Mittelgebirge'') in central Germany, located around the border area where the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Thuringia come together. These mountains, which are at the extreme southeast end o ...
, central Germany.[The floral change in the tertiary of the Rhön mountains (Germany) by Dieter Hans Mai - Acta Paleobotanica 47(1): 135-143, 2007.]
References
* Rushforth, K. (1985). "Ostrya". ''The Plantsman'' 7: 208-212.
Flora of China: ''Ostrya''
Flora Europaea: ''Ostrya''
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q605290
Fagales genera