American hornbeam

Take the Hornbeam Trail, interspersed with the American hornbeam, a distinctive tree also called the musclewood — so named because the bark resembles rippling muscles.

These include the serviceberry, sweetbay and cucumber magnolias, Japanese apricot, American hornbeam, Persian parrotia and red buckeye.

The American hornbeam is an elegant small tree with spreading branches, beechlike leaves and sinewy bark but is overlooked in favor of the more formal, upright European version.

The American hornbeam is also one of the tree species that prefers to be transplanted in the spring rather than the fall, hence the timing.

The American hornbeam has bluish gray bark, very fine in texture, from which the name "blue beech," is common in some localities.