26 



Cornell Junior Extension Bulletin 26 



17. SHAGBARK HICKORY 



Shellbark Hickory, Scalybark Hickory 

 i Hicoria ovata (Miller) Britton) 

 Shagoark hickory is the best known and most valuable of our hicko- 

 ries in the State. It is common in deep, moist soils throughout New 

 York, though rare in the higher Catskills and Adirondacks, and is not re- 



SHAGBARK HICKORY 



Leaf, one-third natural size ; twig, one-half 

 natural size ; fruit, one-third natural size 



ported from the pine barrens of Long Island. In the forest it is a tall 

 straight-branched tree but in open fields and along hedgerows where it 

 often grows it usually forks near the ground into stout ascending limbs. 

 The wood is very heavy, tough, elastic, close-grained, and is used chiefly 

 for handles, vehicles, agricultural implements, and fuel. 



Bark — light gray in color, smooth and seamy, becoming shaggy with 

 age and peeling off into long strips which are loose at both ends and at- 

 tached in the middle, thus giving rise to the name "shagbark hickory." 



Twigs — covered with numerous Lighi dots, extremely tough and plia- 

 ble, reddish brown to gray in color. 



Winter buds — large, egg-shaped, blunt-pointed, with papery. dark 

 brown, loose bud scales, the outer scales much darker, persistent 

 through the wilder; terminal bud usually more than x /- 1 inch long. 



Leaves — alternate, compound, from 8 to 14 inches long, with from 5 to 

 7 leaflets, the three upper ones being by far the largest. 



Fruit — a smooth, white, 4-angled nut, enclosed in a thick, round husk 

 that splits into 4 sections as the nut falls after heavy autumn frosts. 

 Kernel — large, sweet. 



