Carpinus caroliniana

American hornbeam, also known as ironwood, is in the birch or Betulaceae family and is native to eastern North America, from Minnesota and southern Ontario east to Maine, and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, ovate, up to 10 cm long, double-toothed and tapered at the tips. Veins are pinnately arranged and straight, a bit sunken, giving a distinctive corrugated texture.
• Male and female catkins appear in spring at the same time as the leaves.
• Fruit is a small 7–8 mm long nut, partially surrounded by a 3–7 pointed leafy, toothed bracts 2–3 cm long; strings of the bracts droop in pendulous catkins; the bracts mature in autumn and turn brown.