Is an american hornbeam a good tree to plant in Indiana?
American Hornbeam can work here, with caveats. Native and genuinely common in central Indiana along stream terraces and in the wet-mesic woodlots that subdivisions were built into. It is also one of the native small trees now recommended in place of Callery pear, which is widely discouraged here though not banned under Indiana's Terrestrial Plant Rule, so newer plantings are appearing in front yards and utility corridors.
What you'd be signing up to clean up
Light litter: small leaves that mat rather than blow, plus drooping clusters of nutlets held in papery three-lobed bracts that shed in October and collect in gutters and window wells. Nothing it drops carries enough weight to damage a roof, a car, or a fence.
Where to keep it away from
Morton lists it as difficult to transplant because of deep, spreading lateral roots — which is good news for hardscape, since a 20-30 ft hornbeam does not lift walks or drives. What actually kills them is compaction: NC State rates the species as especially sensitive to compacted soil, so parking a chipper or mini-skid over the root zone during a neighboring removal shows up as crown dieback two seasons later.
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