Carpinus betulus European hornbeam; Musclewood; Ironwood Dutch treeguide at www.bomengids.nl, European trees

_{This is the page featuring a single species. Photographs are presented per individual to make it possible to asses how much variation is possible between individuals within the species.}

All photographs of European hornbeam; Musclewood; Ironwood or Carpinus betulus.

For determination details go to the main-key and the all species page. Recognizing trees of this species is hard: it looks a lot like the european beech. It does differ when you look closely, but if you don't you can easily make a mistake. The hornbeam has leafs with jagged edges, has a trunk that looks like at is a bundle or mussles (but the european beech can have this too to some extent) and different seeds than Beech. The branches stand pretty upright, the tree is not really a full tree and almost column-shaped. The cultivars I show below are known as "fastigiata".