Betulaceae -- Birch family

    F. T. Metzger

    American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), also called  blue-beech, ironwood, water-beech, or lechillo (Spanish), is a  small slow-growing short-lived tree in the understory of eastern  mixed hardwood forests. The short, often crooked trunk covered  with a smooth slate gray bark is characteristically ridged,  resembling the muscles of a flexed arm. The wood is  close-grained, very hard, and heavy but little used because such  a small tree is rarely converted into sawed products.