Carya cordiformis

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Bitternut hickory
Carya cordiformis.jpg
Bitternut hickory foliage
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Juglandaceae
Genus: Carya
Section: Carya sect. Apocarya
Species:
C. cordiformis
Binomial name
Carya cordiformis
Carya cordiformis range map 1.png
Natural range

Carya cordiformis, the bitternut hickory, [2] also called bitternut, yellowbud hickory, or swamp hickory, is a large hickory species native to the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Notable for its unique sulphur-yellow buds, it is one of the most widespread hickories and is the northernmost species of pecan hickory (Carya sect. Apocarya). It is the shortest-lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years. [3]

Contents

Description

Twig of a bitternut BitternutTwig.jpg
Twig of a bitternut

It is a large deciduous tree, growing up to 35 m (115 ft) tall (exceptionally to 47 m or 154 ft), with a trunk up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) diameter. The leaves are 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long, pinnate, with 7–11 leaflets, each leaflet lanceolate, 7–13 cm (2+34–5 in) long, with the apical leaflets the largest but only slightly so. The flowers are small wind-pollinated catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a very bitter nut, 2–3 cm (341+14 in) long with a green four-valved cover which splits off at maturity in the fall, and a hard, bony shell. Another identifying characteristic is its bright sulfur-yellow winter bud.

It is closely related to the pecan, sharing similar leaf shape and being classified in the same section of the genus Carya sect. Apocarya, but unlike the pecan, it does not have edible nuts. It is most readily distinguished from the pecan by the smaller number of leaflets, with many leaves having only 7 leaflets (rarely fewer than 9, and often 11–13, in the pecan). Hybrids with the pecan are known, and named Carya × brownii. A hybrid between the shagbark hickory (C. ovata) is also recognized, and is known as Laney's hickory (Carya ×laneyi). [4]

Habitat

Bitternut hickory grows in moist mountain valleys along streambanks and in swamps. Although it is usually found on wet bottom lands, it grows on dry sites and also grows well on poor soils low in nutrients. The species is not included as a titled species in the Society of American Foresters forest cover types because it does not grow in sufficient numbers.

Range

Bitternut hickory grows throughout the eastern United States from southwestern New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and southern Quebec; west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, and northern Minnesota; south to eastern Texas; and east to northwestern Florida and Georgia. It is most common, however, from southern New England west to Iowa and from southern Michigan south to Kentucky. It is probably the most abundant and most uniformly distributed of all the hickories. It is most commonly found in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, in high elevations. [5]

Uses

Bitternut is used for lumber and pulpwood. Commercial stands are located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the "true" hickories. Because bitternut hickory wood is hard and durable, it is used for furniture, paneling, dowels, tool handles and ladders. Like other hickories, the wood is used for smoking meat, and by Native Americans for making bows. Bitternut hickory seeds are eaten by rabbits, [6] and both its seeds and bark are eaten by other wildlife.

The tannins which give the nuts of bitternut hickory their bitter flavour are not fat soluble. As a result, it is possible to extract an edible oil from the nuts through pressing and separating the tannin containing pulp from the oil. [7] Reportedly, the oil content of bitternut hickories reaches as high as 80%. [8] The oil of bitternut hickory is reputed to have a mild and pleasant flavour, similar to that of pecan oil. [9]

Genetics

Bitternut hickory is a diploid species with two sets of sixteen chromosomes that readily hybridizes with other diploid hickory species with a few named hican varieties available. The pecan variety 'Major' has bitternut alleles at two simple sequence repeat loci indicating a cryptic cross that may also have involved C. ovata.

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<i>Carya ovata</i> Species of tree

Carya ovata, the shagbark hickory, is a common hickory in the Eastern United States and southeast Canada. It is a large, deciduous tree, growing well over 100 ft (30 m) tall, and can live more than 350 years. The tallest measured shagbark, located in Savage Gulf, Tennessee, is over 150 ft (46 m) tall. Mature shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark. This characteristic is, however, only found on mature trees; young specimens have smooth bark.

Carya sinensis is a species of tree native to southwestern China and northern Vietnam, in the hickory genus Carya. It is sometimes called Chinese hickory or beaked hickory. It is closely related to Carya kweichowensis.

<i>Carya floridana</i> Species of tree

Carya floridana the scrub hickory, is a small tree native to the Southeast United States, where it is endemic to central Florida.

<i>Carya glabra</i> Species of tree

Carya glabra, the pignut hickory, is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern United States and Canada. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark hickory, swamp hickory, and broom hickory. The pear-shaped nut ripens in September and October, has a sweet maple like smell, and is an important part of the diet of many wild animals. The wood is used for a variety of products, including fuel for home heating. Its leaves turn yellow in the Fall.

<i>Carya laciniosa</i> Species of tree

Carya laciniosa, the shellbark hickory, in the Juglandaceae or walnut family is also called kingnut, big, bottom, thick, or western shellbark, attesting to some of its characteristics. It is a slow-growing, long-lived tree, hard to transplant because of its long taproot, and subject to insect damage. The nuts, largest of all hickory nuts, are sweet and edible. Wildlife and people harvest most of them; those remaining produce seedling trees readily. The wood is hard, heavy, strong, and very flexible, making it a favored wood for tool handles. A specimen tree has been reported in Missouri with 117 cm (46 in) diameter at breast height, 36.9 m tall, and a spread of 22.6 m.

<i>Carya tomentosa</i> Species of hickory tree

Carya tomentosa, commonly known as mockernut hickory, mockernut, white hickory, whiteheart hickory, hognut, bullnut, is a species of tree in the walnut family Juglandaceae. The most abundant of the hickories, and common in the eastern half of the United States, it is long lived, sometimes reaching the age of 500 years. A straight-growing hickory, a high percentage of its wood is used for products where strength, hardness, and flexibility are needed. The wood makes excellent fuel wood, as well. The leaves turn yellow in Autumn.

<i>Carya aquatica</i> Species of tree

Carya aquatica, the bitter pecan or water hickory, is a large tree, that can grow over 30 metres (98 ft) tall of the Juglandaceae or walnut family. In the American South it is a dominant plant species found on clay flats and backwater areas near streams and rivers. The species reproduces aggressively both by seed and sprouts from roots and from stumps of cut trees. Water hickory is a major component of wetland forests now in the south eastern US, because of the selective cutting of more desirable tree species for the lumber industry. It is considered important in cleansing drainage waters since the plants slow water flow during flooding, allowing sediments to fall out of the water column. This tree species is tolerant of wet soils but grows best on well draining soils near rivers and other water ways.

<i>Carya myristiciformis</i> Species of tree

Carya myristiciformis, the nutmeg hickory, a tree of the Juglandaceae or walnut family, also called swamp hickory or bitter water hickory, is found as small, possibly relict populations across the Southern United States and in northern Mexico on rich moist soils of higher bottom lands and stream banks. Little is known of the growth rate of nutmeg hickory. Logs and lumber are sold mixed with other hickories. The nuts are an oil-rich food for wildlife.

<i>Carya ovalis</i> Species of tree

Carya ovalis, the red hickory or sweet pignut hickory, is a fairly uncommon but widespread hickory native to eastern North America. It is typically found growing in dry, well drained sandy upland ridges and sloped woodlands from southern Ontario, Canada, and in the United States east to New Hampshire, south to northern Florida west to eastern Texas and north-west to Nebraska. This species was formerly treated as a variety or northern ecotype of the pignut hickory C. glabra, described as Carya glabra var. odorata. This discrepancy has not yet been completely resolved, and some sources and authors still consider red hickory as a variety or synonym of pignut hickory. However both trees are quite morphologically distinct.

Oak–hickory forest is a type of North American forest ecosystem, and an ecoregion of the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome.

<i>Carya pallida</i> Species of flowering plant

Carya pallida, sand hickory, or pale hickory is a species of hickory native to the southeastern United States. It is a perennial, dicotyledonous plant which prefers rocky or sandy habitats. The sand hickory can reach heights of up to 30m, but its typical height is between 9-24m. In an open area, Carya crowns are usually towering and slim. The sand hickory nut is edible and consumed by various organisms.

<i>Telamona excelsa</i> Species of true bug

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Kanuchi, or simply ᎧᏅᏥ, is a hickory nut soup eaten originally by the Cherokee people and which consists primarily of ground hickory nuts boiled in water. Hickory was the nut of choice, since it is a nut tree endemic to North America, and is known to grow plentifully in those forested areas settled by the Cherokee.

References

  1. Stritch, L. (2018). "Carya cordiformis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2018: e.T62019598A62019600. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T62019598A62019600.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Carya cordiformis". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  3. Smith, H. Clay (1990). "Carya cordiformis". In Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H. (eds.). Hardwoods. Silvics of North America. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: United States Forest Service (USFS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 14 December 2009 via Southern Research Station.
  4. "Carya cordiformis X Carya ovata". Archived from the original on 2012-03-31.
  5. Sargent, C. S. (September 1918). "Notes on North American Trees. II. Carya". Botanical Gazette. 66 (3): 229–258. doi:10.1086/332332. ISSN   0006-8071. S2CID   84479715.
  6. Little, Elbert L. (1980). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region. New York: Knopf. p. 346. ISBN   0-394-50760-6.
  7. Bergo, Alan (2022-10-13). "Sam Thayer's Bitternut Hickory Nut Oil". Forager | Chef. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  8. "Yellowbud hickory, the olive oil of the North?". Sidenote. 2024-02-25. Retrieved 2024-07-18.
  9. Bergo, Alan (2022-10-13). "Sam Thayer's Bitternut Hickory Nut Oil". Forager | Chef. Retrieved 2024-07-18.