Bitternut Hickory
Carya cordiformis
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Bitternut hickory grows from Maine and southern Quebec west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, and northern Minnesota, and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida. It's tolerant of shade and prefers acidic, moist, well-drained soils.
Fruit: A 25-35 mm nut with a thin, four-winged husk covered in yellowish-green hairs. They ripen in September and October.
Flowers: Male flowers are arranged in 3-5" long yellowish-green catkins borne in clusters of 3. Female flowers are arranged in small spikes at the tip of a twig. Individual flowers on both the male and female parts are very small. They bloom in April or May.
Uses: The wood is used for tool handles, furniture, ladders, paneling, and dowels. It's also good for charcoal and firewood, and can be used in smoking ham and bacon for a "hickory smoked" flavor. The deep roots make the tree useful in watershed protection.
Ethnobotany: Native Americans used the wood to make bows due to its durability and flexibility. They would also use the oil as flavoring in food and the mashed nuts in bread. Early settlers extracted oil from the nuts to use in lamps and to help with rheumatism.
Importance to wildlife: Rabbits, beavers, and small rodents sometimes eat the bark. The fruit is generally not eaten by wildlife because the meat is very bitter. Bitternut hickory is a larval host for a number of butterflies and moths.
The bark of a bitternut hickory. Bark is dark gray and smooth when young, but later divides into a network of tight (not shaggy), flat, narrow ridges.
A single leaf on a bitternut hickory. Leaves have 7-11 leaflets, but usually 9.
A single leaflet on a bitternut hickory. Leaflets are 7-15 cm long coarsely toothed, long pointed at apex, wedge shaped or rounded at base, yellowish green and glabrous above, and paler, hairy, and often gland dotted below.
The buds on a bitternut hickory. Terminal buds are valvate, narrow and compressed, blunt pointed, yellow, with a rough surface. Terminal buds are similar but smaller and often superposed.
Leaf arrangement on a bitternut hickory. Leaves are alternate and compound.
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