prayer. See one west of the Lehmann Rose Garden and one just south of 
the Zimmerman Scented Garden. 
Mockernut hickory most often inhabits high, dry, acid sites but turns 
up also in lowland woods. Its distribution extends from New England 
south to Florida and west to Nebraska and Texas. Mockernut hickory is 
easily recognized by its fuzzy leaves and buds, and thick-shelled nuts. 
This species is in the English Woodland Garden. 
Hickories tend to have very hard, stiff woods, useful for hammer 
handles and the hickory sticks once used for classroom discipline. Wood 
of mockernut hickory is particularly strong and was once valuable for 
furniture. Bitternut hickory wood is not as strong as that from other 
hickories. 
Hickory nuts are usually good eating, although those of bitternut 
hickory live up to their name. Far more palatable is its close relative—the 
pecan (Carya illinoensis), a locally native lowland hickory (young trees are 
located west of the Lehmann Rose Garden and in the northern extension 
of the English Woodland Garden). Pecan is sometimes grafted onto 
hardier bitternut hickory understocks to allow pecan cultivation farther 
north than otherwise possible. 
Carya comes from Karua, the Greek name for walnuts. Cordiformis is 
derived from Latin for “heart form” in reference to the heart shape of the - 
nut from bitternut hickory. Tomentosa means “fuzzy”, which applies well - 
to the mockernut hickory, and the English name for this species comes 
from the Dutch word mooker for “hammer”, which is required to open its 
hard nuts. 
Carya cordiformis 
