American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)

The prominent veins of American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) 

give the leaves a distinctive corrugated texture. Note the multiple sizes of the sharp, marginal teeth. © Dave Spier

American hornbeam, also called musclewood, blue-beech, ironwood, and muscle beech, is a small native tree growing in the forest understory, often near the banks of streams and rivers where the soil is moist. I prefer the term "musclewood" because it's so descriptive of the distinctive muscular appearance of older trunks with sinewy, smooth, gray bark. (Very old trunks become fissured.) The nickname "ironwood" refers to the heavy, hard, close-grained, very strong wood formerly used to make tool handles, walking sticks and golf clubs. In spite of its hardness, fallen branches and trunks quickly rot.

Carpinus caroliniana is a member of the Birch Family (Betulaceae) with its characteristically double-toothed leaves, i.e. leaf margins with alternating smaller and larger serrations. The overall leaf shape is oval with a pointed tip (or sometimes long-pointed). Prominent veins give leaves a corrugated texture. Leaves are eaten by several types of Lepidoptera caterpillars. 

Flowers grow in long clusters dangling from leaf axils. Male and female flower catkins are separate (monoecious) and lack petals. The fruits are small, oval nuts, each enclosed by a three-lobed, halberd-shaped bract. The nuts are eaten by birds including grouse and turkeys, as well as by squirrels. Rabbits and deer browse the twigs.

American hornbeam is widespread in the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. The BONAP range map shows the U.S. portion of its distribution. (Click the map once to slightly enlarge.)

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Cayuga County, NY - May 9th

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), a.k.a. orangeroot, yellow-root and yellow puccoon, is a vulnerable native herb in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is generally uncommon and sometimes rare due to over-collecting. If you happen to find it, please keep the exact location private; county-level is sufficient. 

Goldenseal grows in rich deciduous forests, often in association with Twinleaf and Squirrel Corn. Young plants erupting from seeds can remain as cotyledons* for a year or more. In the second and third years (or longer), a single leaf develops. It takes four to five years for a plant to actually begin flowering. At this stage, it has a single stem with two alternate, palmately-lobed leaves and one broad basal leaf, all with toothed edges and fairly-deep sinuses. (The leaves sometimes resemble silver maple leaves.) 

At the top of mature plants, there is a single terminal flower with three sepals and 12+ greenish-white stamens. There are no petals. Fertilized flowers grow into red, raspberry-like fruits with one or two seeds. Goldenseal also grows in patches of interconnected ramets** reproducing asexually through clonal propagation of the rhizomes.

On the USDA range map, Goldenseal is native from Ontario, Canada, southward to western New England and the mid-Atlantic and almost to the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi and Alabama. (It skips South Carolina and Florida.) A reminder that due to long-term decline from over-collecting and habitat loss, please restrict your public location information to the county level or another obscuring choice. On iNaturalist, mark the location "Private." Thank you.

*cotyledon: the first leaf of a developing plant embryo, i.e. the first part of the plant to emerge from the seed after germination

**ramet: a genetically identical individual that is part of a clonal colony, or genet