American Hornbeam
Carpinus caroliniana
A native understory tree with smooth, blue-grey bark fluted like flexed muscle, and leaves that turn yellow to orange-red in fall. It's a natural for shade, woodland gardens and stream banks, and copes with clay and flooding. It's hard to transplant, so plant young, in spring, and water through drought.
- Mature size
- 28 × 28 ft
- 8.5 × 8.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to full shade
- Water
- Medium to wet
- Fall color
- Oct–Nov
American Hornbeam at its mature size
A mature American Hornbeam grows 20 to 35 feet tall and just as wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What American Hornbeam looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare: fine dense twigs, smooth blue-gray fluted trunk.
In leaf · Apr–Sep
Dense dull blue-green toothed oval leaves.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Mix of yellow, orange and red, moderately bright, variable.
Photos
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Growing American Hornbeam
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, and the Midwest.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Shade garden, rain garden, and fall color
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern North America
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For American Hornbeam, that’s about 28 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See American Hornbeam in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.