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A small hardwood tree, hornbeam can grow 30 feet tall (or be happily clipped into a formal hedge).
In plant classifications, the hornbeam tree is often mistaken for a shrub, though in fact it belongs to the same family as the hazelnut tree and yields wrinkly brown nuts, which are not edible. Of its dozens of species, Carpinus betulus (European hornbeam) is preferred for its narrow crown, which can be easily clipped into a tidy, tight hedge.