Tree to 10 m or more tall. Bark grey. Leaves mostly 5-10 cm long, rounded at the base, marginal teeth in 2 rows. Leaf stalk 0.5-1 cm long. Flowers in spring. Nuts about 5 mm long with tuft of hairs at the tip and enclosed in balloon-like leafy sheath.
SE Europe, W Asia
O. virginiana (Mill.) K. Koch, American Hop Hornbeam, is occasionally available and differs in having brown bark, almost cordate leaves, leaf stalks often with stalked glands and nuts that are swollen in the centre.
Source: (1997). Betulaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
