THE MOCKERNUT OR BIG BUD HICKORY 



IN summer the easiest way to determine the Mockernut Hickory is to see that the 

 petioles of the leaves are pubescent and that the blades have a strong aromatic 

 fragrance, especially when slightly bruised. The lower surface of the blade is usually 

 more or less pubescent, and there are generally five or seven leaflets. In autumn the species 

 is to be distinguished by the fact that the fruit husk has strongly indented sutures, and also 

 by the downy bark on the young twigs. The nuts vary greatly in size, but generally they 

 are very large, and have thick shells which are commonly four-angled on account of promi- 

 nent vertical ridges on the outside. The kernel of the nut is sweet and edible, but does not 

 fill the cavities so completely as does the kernel of the Shagbark. It is commonly supposed 

 that this smallness of the kernel, as compared with the size of the nut outwardly, gave to 

 the species its common name. 



Like the other Hickories the flowers of the Mockernut develop in spring as the 

 leaves are nearing full size. The pollen-bearing blossoms are in slender catkins arranged 

 in groups that arise from the base of the new season's shoots. They are green, and hang 

 downward for several inches. The seed-bearing flowers are generally in groups of two or 

 more at the ends of the new branches. Pollination is brought about by the wind. 



In the more northern parts of its range the Mockernut seems by preference to be a 

 hillside tree, being found most abundantly on rocky hills and mountain slopes. Its north- 

 ern range extends from central New England west to Ontario, and its southern from 

 Florida west to Kansas and Texas. Full-grown trees reach a height of seventy or even a 

 hundred feet and a trunk diameter of three feet, such large specimens more commonly 

 occurring in the South than in the North. Professor Sargent writes that this is "the only 

 Hickory in the southern maritime Pine-belt, growing in great abundance on low sandy 

 hummocks close to the shores of bays and estuaries along the coast of the South Atlantic 

 and Gulf States." It is often called the Big Bud Hickory, and its wood has much the same 

 value and is used for the same purposes as that of the Shagbark Hickory. 



As in the case of many other trees various forms of hickories are often found which 

 have characters intermediate between well-known species. Such trees are supposed to 

 be natural hybrids. Trees which indicate such hybridizing between the Mockernut and 

 the Pecan are occasionally seen, as well as others that indicate hybridizing between the 

 Mockernut and other hickories. 



C70) 



