Often, walking in a park or a forest, we admire massive, old trees and enjoy their shadow, but, unfortunately, it often happens that we don’t know the name of a particular tree. One of these common, but not all known plants is hornbeam. It attracts attention and attracts interest with its dense crown of the correct form and beautiful foliage. We offer to see how the hornbeam tree looks in the photo and learn a lot of interesting information about it.
- Botanical description
- Species
- Common Hornbeam
- Eastern Hornbeam
- Caucasian hornbeam
- Cardiopulmonary Hornbeam
- Caroline Grab
- Grab Turchaninov
- Virgin crab
- Wood properties and application
- Useful properties and contraindications
Botanical description
The tree belongs to the Birch family. This deciduous tree reaches a height of 5 to 30 meters, and its width varies from 5 to 8 meters. The krone is a magnificent, cylindrical form. The hornbeam leaves are dentate, dark green in color, their length depending on the species varies from 5 to 15 cm. 
The underside of the sheet is fleecy and down. On the upper part are thin streaks. Autumn incredibly transforms the foliage, painting it yellow, orange, burgundy and red.In the spring, with the advent of the first leaflets, male and female catkins are formed on the plant.
A hornbeam is a tree with a closely spaced and densely branched root system, sometimes its roots even rise above the ground. The trunk of the plant is covered with smooth light bark.
The hornbeam tree, the appearance and description of which we now understand, belongs to wind-resistant, tene-resistant and light-loving plants, let's see where it grows. 
The plant can often be found in Europe, where it grows both in park areas and in individual forests. Hornbeam is popular in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Transcaucasia.
It should be noted that the hornbeam grows slowly, in order to speed up the process, it is necessary to carry out regular dressings and give preference to rich, lime-rich soils that are well moistened.
Species
Depending on the climatic conditions, different species of this plant grow in different parts of the world. Let's look at each of them.
Common Hornbeam
It occurs quite often mainly in Europe, so it is also called the European hornbeam. It grows both in forests and in gardens and park areas. It is about 20 meters high, and its crown girth is about 8 meters. 
The common hornbeam prefers a mild climate and grows in sunny areas with moderate soil moisture. In the second half of spring the tree blooms, covered with beautiful earrings.
Eastern Hornbeam
This species grows in the Crimea, the Caucasus, in the south and east of Europe. A distinctive feature of the eastern hornbeam is its small height, only 6-10 meters.
The barrel is most often twisted. The crown is ovoid or round.
It blooms in mid-spring, and the fruits appear in late June, early July. 
Caucasian hornbeam
It is found in the northern part of Asia Minor and Iran, in the Crimea and in the Caucasus.
Most often these are low trees up to 6 meters high, although there are cases when the Caucasian species grew to 18 meters, but this is an exceptional phenomenon, which is extremely rare.
This species prefers mountain ranges and the neighborhood with oaks, chestnuts and beeches. 
Cardiopulmonary Hornbeam
This deciduous tree grows in Japan, China, Korea and Primorsky Krai of Russia. Plant height - from 10 to 20 meters.
The leaves resemble a heart shape, and the name of the species comes from this.
Prefers mixed forests. It often grows at the foot of the mountains. 
Caroline Grab
North America is considered the birthplace of this species, where the plant can be found along rivers and near swamps and lakes. Height ranges from 6 to 12 meters.
The plant is characterized by a ribbed trunk up to 30 cm in diameter and a bushy spreading crown.
Treats thermophilic plants which badly endure frosts.
Grab Turchaninov
These small trees up to 6 meters in height grow in the mountain forests of China.They belong to rare plant species, while they are famous for their decorativeness.
It is distinguished by a luxurious crown of an ideal round shape and bright glossy leaves with notches, the color palette of which varies throughout the growing season.
So, in spring the young foliage is painted in bronze, then it becomes saturated green, and in the fall it gets a yellow-orange color with splashes of red. 
Virgin crab
It grows in the southeastern part of North America. It is considered very whimsical, but at the same time incredibly decorative tree. In height reaches no more than 12 meters.
Wood properties and application
Hornbeam belongs to the sapwood, its wood is very dense, white-gray in color, sometimes with a greenish tinge. This tree species is very much appreciated, despite the fact that it is very difficult to work with it.
The most important thing in the process of processing this material is to dry it properly. Raw wood is very fibrous, and overdried becomes quite whimsical, so drying is always given special attention.
If the raw material is well processed, it is used for the manufacture of various household items. 
Also this tree is widely used as decoration of gardens and parks. We propose to focus in more detail on the main applications of this plant.
- Landscape
All types of this plant easily tolerate haircuts, so you can give them beautiful shapes to your taste.
These trees are also planted in pots and kept indoors. They make charming "Bonsai". They are great for office space and winter gardens. 
- Public goods
- Design
Hornbeam furniture looks very elegant, can complement and decorate any interior.
But the parquet of this tree will be just an amazing design decision. This floor looks just incredible and can become the highlight of any interior. 
- Sports equipment
- Musical instruments
Useful properties and contraindications
Now, when the idea of what a hornbeam has already formed, it should be added that the plant has a mass of useful properties and is widely used in both traditional and classical medicine.
Aldehydes, coumarins, caffeic and gallic acids, flavonoids and tannins are present in its foliage. Also in the bark and leaves, a high content of essential oils and ascorbic acid are noted.
Hornbeam fruits are rich in vegetable fats. Infusions and decoctions of the leaves of this tree are used for indigestion and disorders of the digestive tract. The high content of tannins contributes to the normalization of these processes. 
Various hothouses and decoctions are prepared from hornbeam flowers to fight a brain tumor and circulatory system disorders. There is a high efficiency of use of drugs based on the fruits of this plant for infertility and difficult pregnancy.
Unfortunately, the healing properties of wood are not fully understood. Among the side effects noted disorder of the digestive system and impaired kidney function. Therefore, it is necessary to approach the treatment very carefully and by all means consult with specialists.
