Carya ovata
Shagbark hickory | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fagales |
Family: | Juglandaceae |
Genus: | Carya |
Section: | Carya sect. Carya
|
Species: | C. ovata
|
Binomial name | |
Carya ovata (
K.Koch | |
Natural range of Carya ovata |
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[3] years. The tallest measured shagbark, located in Savage Gulf, Tennessee, is over 150 ft (46 m) tall [citation needed]. 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.
The shagbark hickory's nut is edible and has a nutty taste. The
The two varieties are:
- Carya ovata var. ovata (northern shagbark hickory) has its largest leaflets over 20 cm (8 in) long and nuts 3.0–4.0 cm (1+1⁄8–1+5⁄8 in) long.
- Carya ovata var. australis (southern shagbark hickory or Carolina hickory) has its largest leaflets under 20 cm (8 in) long and nuts 2.5–3.0 cm (1–1+1⁄8 in) long.
Some sources regard southern shagbark hickory as the separate species Carya carolinae-septentrionalis.[9]
Name
The word hickory is an aphetic form from earlier pohickory, short for even earlier pokahickory, borrowed from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora, hickory-nut meat or a nut milk drink made from it.[5] Other names for this tree are Carolina Hickory, Scalybark Hickory, Upland Hickory, and Shellbark Hickory, with older binomial names of Carya ovata var. fraxinifolia, Carya ovata var. nuttallii, Carya ovata var. pubescens, Hicoria alba, Hicoria borealis, and Hicoria ovata.[10]
Distribution
Shagbark hickory is found throughout most of the eastern United States, but it is largely absent from the
Shagbark hickory was introduced in Europe in the 17th century. It can still be found in Central Europe as a non-native species.[14]
Uses
The nuts are edible[15] with an excellent flavor, and are a popular food among people and squirrels alike. They are unsuitable for commercial or orchard production due to the long time it takes for a tree to produce sizable crops and unpredictable output from year to year. Shagbark hickories can grow to enormous sizes but are unreliable bearers. The nuts can be used as a substitute for the pecan[15] in colder climates and have nearly the same culinary function.
C. ovata begins producing seeds at about 10 years of age, but large quantities are not produced until 40 years and will continue for at least 100. Nut production is erratic, with good crops every 3 to 5 years, in between which few or none appear and the entire crop may be lost to animal predation.
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, was popularly nicknamed Old Hickory, a play on the toughness of hickory wood.[16] In 1830, he began planning the construction of his tomb at The Hermitage, his plantation in Tennessee. The grave site was surrounded by a variety of trees, including six shagbark hickories. They stood there for 168 years until a storm in 1998 demolished over 1,200 trees at the site. Work on replanting them remains an ongoing project. In modern times, shagbark hickory is rarely used as an ornamental due to its large size, slow growth, difficulty of transplanting (all Juglandaceae species have large taproots) and nut litter.
Hickory nuts were a food source for Native Americans,[17] who used the kernel milk to make corn cakes, kanuchi and hominy.[16]
Shagbark hickory
The bark of the shagbark hickory is also used to flavor a maple-style syrup.[citation needed]
Prehistoric indigenous use
Shagbark hickory nuts were an important staple of indigenous diet. Excavation of an ancient (ca. 4350–4050 cal BP) site at Victor Mills in Columbia County, Georgia found hickory nuts, processing tools and other artifacts indicating large-scale processing and storage of nuts.[20]
Genetics
Shagbark hickory hybridizes with
Gallery
-
Tree in forest
-
Bud
-
Female flowers
-
Leaf
-
Maturing fruit
References
- . Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0 - Carya ovata, Shagbark Hickory". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
- ^ "Eastern OLDLIST: A database of maximum tree ages for Eastern North America".
- ^ Tirmenstein, D. A. 1991. "Carya ovata." In: Fire Effects Information System [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).[1]. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ a b Hilton Pond Center: Shaggybark Tree. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ISBN 0-472-08921-8.
- ^ Beaulieu, David. "Growing Shagbark Hickories, Harvesting Hickory Nuts". about.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ "Shagbark Hickory Tree". cirrusimage.com. Red Planet Inc. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ Bioimages: Carya carolinae-septentrionalis Archived 2006-02-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ "PLANT DATABASE: Carya ovata". Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, The University of Texas at Austin. 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
- ^ Graney, David L. (1990). "Carya ovata". 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 2013-08-10 – via Southern Research Station.
- ^ "The Lavant Shagbarks". Eastern Chapter Society of Ontario Nut Growers. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2016-06-09.
- ^ Christman, Steve (2003-11-09). "#836 Carya ovata". Floridata.com. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
- S2CID 214538885.
- ^ OCLC 244766414.
- ^ ISBN 0-394-50760-6.
- ^ Grauke, LJ. "Hickories: Carya ovata". Texas A&M University, Department of Horticultural Science. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ Collingwood, C.H., and Warren D. Brush. 1974. Knowing Your Trees. Revised and edited by Devereux Butcher. Washington, District of Columbia: The American Forestry Association. pp. 168–169.
- ^ Peattie, Donald Culross (1934). Trees You Want to Know. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company.
- .
External links
- Carya ovata images at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University Plant Image Database
- Schoonderwoerd, Kristel. "Spotlight on seasonal shifts in trees." Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University website, 8 April 2019. Accessed 21 May 2020.
- Carya ovata at Flora of North America
- Comparison of Shagbark, Southern Shagbark, and Kingnut Hickory at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
- Carya carolinae-septentrionalis (= Carya ovata var. australis ) images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
- Shagbark hickory fact sheet[permanent dead link] at Virginia Dept of Forest Resources (photos of leaves, bark, nut and twig)
- Carya ovata - information, genetic conservation units and related resources. European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN)