わが国の本州、岩手・新潟県以南から四国・九州、それに朝鮮半島南部や中国の中東部・南東部に分布しています。山地や丘陵の雑木林に生え、高さは15メートルほどになります。樹皮は滑らかで白い模様が目立ち、老木では浅い割れ目が入ります。葉は卵形から卵状長楕円形で、縁には鋭く細かい鋸歯があります。4月から5月ごろ、葉の展開と同時に雄花序と雌花序をだします。果実は堅果で、葉状の果苞がつき、10月ごろに熟します。和名は、近縁種の「アカシデ」などと比べて、材がやや柔らかく建築材などへの利用価値が劣るとされたことから、「役に立たない」という意味合いで「イヌ」が付けられました。中国語では「昌化鵝耳櫪(chang hua e er li)」と呼ばれます。
韓国語では「ケソオナム(개서어나무)」です。これは「犬(ケ: 개)」+「アカシデ(ソオナム: 서어나무)」の合成語です。「ケ(개)」は、何か異なっていたり、少し劣っていることを表す接頭辞です。
カバノキ科クマシデ属の落葉高木で、学名は Carpinus tschonoskii (syn. Carpinus fauriei)。英名は Korean hornbeam。
The Korean hornbeam (Carpinus tschonoskii) belongs to Betulaceae (the Birch family). It is a tall deciduous tree that is distributed southward from Iwate-Niigata prefecture of Honshu to Shikoku, Kyushu of Japan, as well as the southern Korean Penninsula, central-eastern and southeastern regions of China. This tree grows in montane brushes and can reach about 15 m in height. The barks are smooth, whitish figured and furrowed shallowly when aging. The leaves are ovate to ovate-oblong with fine acute toothed edges. The male and female clusters are borne as soon as foliatin from April to May. Th fruits are nuts with leafy bracts and ripen in October. The Japanese name was given the prefix "inu" (meaning "dog"), implying "useless", because its wood is slightly softer than that of closely related species such as "Red-leaved hornbeam" and was therefore considered less suitable for use in construction and other applications. It is called "昌化鵝耳櫪" (chang hua e er li) in Chinese.
In Korean, it's called "gae-seo-eo-na-mu" (개서어나무). This is a compound word consisting of "dog" (gae: 개) + "Red-leaved hornbeam" (seo-eo-na-mu: 서어나무). "gae" is a prefix that indicates something is different or slightly inferior.