The Eastern Hophornbeam (Ironwood) is a large understory tree in woods growing on upland sites and on hills and slopes, and it is very shade tolerant. Its native range is from Nova Scotia and southeast Canada and New England down to northern Florida into east Texas a little up to northern Minnesota & southeast Manitoba. I have seen it wild in a fair number in certain locations of forest, especially on hills, in northeast Illinois. It leaves that look in between elm & birch are 3 to 5 inches long x 1.5 to 2 inches wide with doubly toothed margins that turn a good golden color in autumn. In late summer one sees clusters of tan bladder-like seed-bearing pods that get to 2 inches long. The shaggy gray-tan-brown bark is pretty. It grows about 8 to 12 inches/year and lives about 150 years. It forms a taproot so it is difficult to transplant and must be moved in early spring as a young tree. I've seen it infrequently planted in parks and public town areas and professional and naturalistic landscapes in the Chicago area. A few large, diverse nurseries and some native plant nurseries sell it. I think it is a wonderful small to medium tree for many landscapes.

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