Ironwood

Most people have never seen PEI’s rarest native tree in person, and some have never even heard of it. Meet the beautiful Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana).

Ironwood gets its common name from its extraordinarily hard, dense wood – the hardest of any Canadian tree. It’s also known as Hop Hornbeam: ‘Hop’ because the tree’s seeds are held in structures that look very much like Hops’ flowers, and ‘Hornbeam’ because of the wood is ‘hard as a horn’. Legend has it that an axe will bounce off an Ironwood tree without making a dent, though that’s not entirely true.

Ironwood doesn’t reach great heights like Sugar Maple, Yellow Birch, or American Elm, but prefers to hang out in the shady understorey beneath these and other mature trees. While Ironwood is distinctive, it can be easily overlooked if you aren’t keeping an eye out for it.

The bark is grey-brown with vertical, almost scratch-like markings that twist a bit around the trunk (main photo). On some trees, the bark splits and curls vertically, creating a shaggy look. In either case – smooth or shaggy – Ironwood bark is unlike that of any other PEI tree.

Ironwood is a member of the Birch Family (Betulaceae) and its oval leaves could be mistaken for those of Yellow Birch. The teeth around the margins of Ironwood leaves are much sharper than those of Yellow Birch and always remind me a bit of a sawblade (inset photo).

Today, Ironwood is known from just a handful of locations in western PEI, growing among mature hardwoods on land that has never been farmed. Although this tree is relatively common on the mainland, it may have always been rare here. Doug Sobey’s extensive research into the early descriptions of PEI’s forests found no mention of Ironwood during the French Period (1534-1758) and only two references to it among 172 documents from the British and Post-Confederation Periods (1758-1900).

Ironwood can be hard to work with but has been used to make durable products including tool handles and mallets; local craftsman Sid Watts has made Ironwood pens from a piece of wood he was given. Ironwood seeds are considered edible by some but are not something I recommend foraging on PEI, for two reasons. First, this tree is rare here. Second, all parts of Ironwood (including the seeds) contain cyanogenic glycosides which can be converted to cyanide in our bodies. The presence of these naturally occurring chemicals in Ironwood has only been known for about 20 years, and it takes time for old practices to be updated with new knowledge.

If you’d like to add Ironwood to your own property, you can buy it from the Macphail Woods Nursery. It’s a rare but beautiful part of PEI Untamed!