Black Walnut
Juglans nigra
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Black walnut grows from southern Ontario westward to southern Minnesota, southward to Texas and Louisiana, and eastward to northwestern Florida. It doesn't grow in the Mississippi Valley and Delta regions. It's cultivated in Hawaii. Black walnut grows best in deep, well drained, neutral soils. It's intolerant of shade.
Fruit: A 4-5 cm wide, corrugated nut enclosed in a fleshy husk. They ripen in September or October and drop soon after the leaves fall.
Flowers: A 3-6" long, yellow-green catkin. They appear between mid-April and mid-June.
Uses: Black walnut is one of the most durable hardwoods growing in the US. The wood is used for furniture and veneer. An attractive surface and grain pattern can be attained in the wood, making it especially useful for furniture and expensive rifles. The nuts are harvested commercially to be eaten plain or as flavoring in cakes, candy, and ice cream. The ground shells of the fruit have some specialty uses such as a nonslip agent in automobile tires and a filtering agent for scrubbers in smokestacks.
Ethnobotany: Native Americans were known to use the nuts as flavoring and the roots to make black dye. It's also mentioned in some Native American creation stories.
Importance to wildlife: The nuts are eaten by rodents and birds.
The young bark of a black walnut. Mature bark is dark brown to grayish black and roughened with scaly ridges.
The foliage of a black walnut. Leaves have 15-23 leaflets, though the terminal leaflet is often missing.
A single leaflet on a black walnut. Leaflets are 3-15 cm long, finely toothed, dark yellowish green and glabrous above, and paler green and hairy below.
The terminal bud of a black walnut. Terminal buds are less than 10 mm long, woolly, with 2 pairs of scales but appearing naked.
The leaf scar of a black walnut. The upper margin is prominently notched and have 3 bundle scars, leading to the leaf scar being known as a monkey face.
The fruit of a black walnut, including the surrounding husk.
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