Pignut Hickory
Carya glabra
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Pignut hickory grows from eastern Maine westward to southeastern Iowa, southward to eastern Texas, and eastward to central Florida. It's the most common hickory in the Appalachian Mountains. It grows in well-drained soils and partial to full sun.
Fruit: A 2-3 cm long, thick shelled nut. They ripen between September and October, during which the husk splits about halfway to the base.
Flowers: Female flowers occur in spikes of 2-5 flowers. Male flowers occur in 5-8 cm long catkins. Male flowers develop before female flowers, typically in April or May.
Uses: The wood is heavy and strong, so it is used in items such as skis, tool handles, and shuttle blocks. It's sometimes planted as a shade tree.
Ethnobotany: Early American settlers used the wood for broom handles and wagon wheels and fed the nuts to hogs.
Importance to wildlife: The twigs, leaves, and nuts are eaten by a wide variety of wildlife.
The bark of a pignut hickory. Bark is gray and usually tight, but occasionally scaly or shaggy.
A single leaf on a pignut hickory. Leaves have 5-7 leaflets.
A single leaflet on a pignut hickory. Leaflets are 4-22 cm long, finely toothed, dark green to yellowish green and glabrous above, and paler and glabrous below except for some scattered hairs along lower veins.
The underside of a pignut hickory leaf, showing the lack of pubescence.
The terminal bud of a pignut hickory. Terminal buds are relatively small for a hickory, ovoid to subglobose, with about 4 visible scales. Outer scales are reddish brown to dark brown and often dotted with yellow particles, but these shed early to the reveal the lighter scales visible in this photo.
The fruit of a pignut hickory. Pignut hickory is named for the nut which is known for looking like a pig's snout.
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