Carya ovalis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fagales |
Family: | Juglandaceae |
Genus: | Carya |
Section: | Carya sect. Carya |
Species: | C. ovalis |
Binomial name | |
Carya ovalis | |
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. [2] 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. [3] However both trees are quite morphologically distinct.
The red hickory is generally encountered as a medium-sized tree, capable of growing to 30 m (100 ft) in height. [4] The single trunk is straight and often continues for the entire height of the tree, although sometimes splits into several large limbs once the canopy has been breached. The branches are strong, stout and long, ascending in the upper crown and drooping in the lower crown; the branches around mid-height are more or less horizontal. This creates a broad, thick, column-shaped form that casts dense shade. Individuals have been known to live from 100–250 years of age. The largest known red hickory, located in Clay County, Kentucky, is 175 feet tall and 56 inches in diameter at breast height. [5]
The leaves are pinnately compound, typically producing 5-9 leaflets (7 being the most common). The terminal leaflet is often the largest, with the auxiliary leaflets decreasing in size from the tip to the base of the rachis. Leaflets are broadest above or at their median length, with finely serrated margins. They are dark green and smooth or glaucous above and paler and finely pubescent underneath. The rachis of the leaves are usually bright red or purple in color, a distinctive feature of red hickory that helps to separate it from pignut hickory. [6]
The bark of mature trees is grey, composed of tight, flat-topped intersecting ridges that can appear quite blocky but are generally strap-like. Occasionally, the ridges may separate from the trunk in peeling strips, loose at both ends, a trait characteristic of Shagbark and Shellbark Hickories. Young, vigorously growing trees are more prone to producing peeling bark than mature individuals.
Like all hickories, the fruit is a small round or slightly elliptical nut, born singly or in groups of 2-3 on the ends of bearing branches. When immature, the nut is encased in a thin, green husk with 4 distinct seams. Upon maturity (late September to mid-October) the husk changes from being green, fleshy and flexible to dark brown and very brittle. The seams then split from the base upwards and may or may not completely separate from the ripe nut. The nut itself is smooth, tan to beige in color and has 4 shallow ridges from the seams. The inner kernel is very oily and varies in flavor from bitter and unpalatable to mildly sweet. For such a small nut, the shell is thick and the kernel difficult to extract. These nuts are relished by countless wildlife species, including many rodents and birds, as well as raccoons and wild turkeys.
The flowers emerge in the spring at the same times as the developing leaves (early to late May). The male flowers are long, green, inconspicuous drooping catkins that develop between the base of the petiole and the developing twig. The female flowers are bizarre looking, with a tuft of sticky green tissue emerging from a swollen base. These develop individually or in groups at the end of a new twig, after the expanding leaves. All hickories are self-infertile and monoecious.
Quercus velutina, the black oak, is a species of oak in the red oak group, native and widespread in eastern and central North America. It is sometimes called the eastern black oak.
The pecan is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River.
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus Carya, which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexico, and two to four are native to Canada. A number of hickory species are used for their edible nuts, lumber or other wood and woodcraft products.
Juglans nigra, the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central Texas. Wild trees in the upper Ottawa Valley may be an isolated native population or may have derived from planted trees.
Juglans cinerea, commonly known as butternut or white walnut, is a species of walnut native to the eastern United States and southeast Canada.
Juglans regia, the Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut, or, especially in Great Britain, common walnut, is an Old World walnut tree species native to the region stretching from the Caucasus eastward to the Kashmir region. It is widely cultivated across Asia, Northern America and Europe.
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.
Carya cordiformis, the bitternut hickory, also called bitternut, yellowbud hickory, or swamp hickory, is a large pecan hickory with commercial stands located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the true hickories. It is the shortest-lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years.
The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It consists of mesophytic plants west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States.
Castanea pumila, commonly known as the Allegheny chinquapin, American chinquapin or dwarf chestnut, is a species of chestnut native to the southeastern United States. The native range is from Massachusetts and New York to Maryland and extreme southern New Jersey and southeast Pennsylvania south to central Florida, west to eastern Texas, and north to southern Missouri and Kentucky. The plant's habitat is dry sandy and rocky uplands and ridges mixed with oak and hickory to 1000 m elevation. It grows best on well-drained soils in full sun or partial shade.
Carya floridana the scrub hickory, is a small tree native to the Southeast United States, where it is endemic to central Florida.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Oak–hickory forest is a type of North American forest ecosystem, and an ecoregion of the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome.
The Southeastern mixed forests are an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome, in the lower portion of the Eastern United States.
The Allegheny–Cumberland dry oak forest and woodland is a forest system found in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
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.