Genus Hicoria, Raf., Carya, Nutt. (Hickory)

Leaves - compound (odd-feathered; leaflets, five); alternate; edge of leaflets sharp-toothed. Outline - of leaflet, long oval, reverse egg-shape or egg-shape, the lower pair differing in shape from the others, and much smaller. Apex - long-pointed. Base - of the end leaflet, wedge-shape; of the others, more or less blunted. Leaf/Stem - rough throughout. Buds - large and scaly, often of a green and brown color. Leaflet/Stems - lacking (or scarcely noticeable), excepting the roughish stem of the end leaflet. Leaflets - four to eight inches long; roughish below. Bark - dark and very rough in the older trunks, peeling up and down in long, shaggy strips. Often the strips cling at their middle and are loose at each end. Fruit - round, nearly one and a half to two inches in diameter; the husk, thick (nearly half an inch), depressed at the center, grooved at the seams, and wholly separating into four inches at maturity; the nut, about one inch long, often the same in breadth, slightly flattened at the sides, angular, nearly pointless, whitish, with a rather this shell, and a large finely flavored kernel. October. Found - from the valley of the St. Lawrence River to Southeastern Minnesota, and southward to Western Florida. Its finest growth is west of the Alleghany Mountains.General Information - A tree, fifty to eighty feet high, of great value. Its tough and elastic wood is used in making agricultural implements, carriages, axe-handles, etc. It ranks also among the best of woods for fuel. Most of the “hickory nuts” of the markets are from this species. All the Hickories are picturesque trees. Their tendency, even when standing alone, is to grow high, and with heads that, instead of being round, are cylinder-shaped to the very top, with only enough breaks and irregularities to add to the effect. This tendency is more marked in the Hickories than in any other of the leaf-shedding trees of North America. They are worthy of the name sometimes given them of ‘the artist’s tree.” Hicoria, from a Greek word meaning round, in allusion to the shape of the nut.

Downloads