Handbook of Teees of the Nor-i 



vXTl C'aX.' 



09 



The Pale-leaf Hickory is a forest tree of 

 iLciliiiii) size, not often iiinre tliiui 40 or fiO ft. 

 in height or 18 or 2U in. in thickness of trunk 

 which is covered with a grayish brown hark, 

 very rough with prominent connected scaly 

 ridges, \^"hen growing apart from other trees it 

 develops a rather narrow ol)long top with up- 

 right branches and pendulous lower branches. 

 It inhabits well drained slopes, sandy plains 

 and rocky ridges, sometimes fruiting when 

 only a few feet in height. It is abun- 

 dant in the southern part of its range, par- 

 ticularly the foothill region of the southern 

 Alleghanies. 



Its wood is heavy, hard, strong and tough 



and excellent for tool-handles, agricultural 



implements and for fuel.- The nuts are sweet 



and edible. 



Leavcfi tl-10 in. Ions, with slender pul>i'Scent 

 petioles and usually 7 (sometimes .j or 0) leflets 

 which vary from lanceolate to lance-ohovate, ser- 

 rate, acuminate, and when younj? pubescent and 

 covered beneath with silvery peltate scales and 

 resin-giobules, but at maturity glabrous dark green 

 above and yellowish beneath; winter buds small 

 with 6-8 imbricated scales, the outer dotted with 

 resin-globules. Floin-rs staminate in scurfy pubes- 

 cent catkins, r.-7 in. long; central calyx-lobe much 

 longer than the lateral ones. Fruit subglobnse to 

 pyriform, 1-1% in. long, compressed with thin 

 husk splitting nearly to thr basr : nut slightly 

 angled, palo brown with thick slirll and small 

 sweet seed. 



1. Syn. I-Iicoria pallida Ashe. 









