European hornbeam seeds

European or common hornbeam / Carpinus betulus - is a species of deciduous tree from the genus Hornbeam (Carpinus) of the Birch family (Betulaceae). Type species of the genus.

Tree 7-12 meters high, in rare cases up to 25 meters. The trunk is up to 40 centimeters in diameter, ribbed, sometimes slightly twisted. The crown is very dense, cylindrical, rounded at the top. The bark of young trees is silver-gray, deeply cracking with age. The branches are thin and long; marginal ones drooping in spring, straight in summer; young shoots are brown, lenticulated, glabrous or sparsely hairy.

The buds are sharp, narrow, 5-8 millimeters long. The leaves are oval or oblong-oval, pointed, rounded at the base or slightly unequally heart-shaped, up to 15 centimeters long, 5 centimeters wide, dark green above, dense, almost bare, on petioles up to 15 millimeters long.

Monoecious plant. Staminate catkins are loose, up to 6 centimeters long, 1 centimeter wide. The bracts are yellowish, reddish-brown along the edge and ciliated, pointed, with 5-7 stamens at the base, the anthers of which are pubescent at the top. Pistillate earrings up to 15 centimeters long, up to 6 centimeters in diameter. The fruit wrappers are leathery, 3-6 centimeters long, three-lobed, entire or serrated.

The fruit is a small, oval, slightly flattened, shiny, brown nut, 3-6 millimeters in length, with 7-11 ribs, located in the covering leaf. Each earring usually contains 10-30 nuts. There are 30-35 thousand wingless nuts in 1 kilogram.

Flowering in April - May. Fruiting in September-October.