BITTERNUT HICKORY 



I {><■<>>■ in mi ni mil (Miirsh.) Urittoii 



The Walnut I amil> 

 .u GLANDAI i \\. 



Habit and llabit.it : A tall, slender tree, 10-75 feet high, with a 



trunk diameter of 12-20 inches, or occasionally reaching a height of 100 



feet ami a diameter of •"> feet; stiff, upright branches form a broad, 

 handsome crown which is often widest near the top. Prefers low, moist 



and rich soil along stream courses and about ponds and lakes, but is 



also commonly found on upland slopes and hills. The most rapidly grow- 

 ing of all of the hickories. 



Leaves and Buds: Leaves alternate, pinnately compound, 6-10 

 inches long. Leaflets 7-1 1. the upper 8-6 inches long and about one- 

 fourth as wide, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, long-pointed, often un- 

 equally wedge-shaped at tin' base, coarsely or finely serrate, thin and 

 firm, smooth, bright green above, paler and Bomewhat downy or smooth 

 below. Petioles slender, slightly grooved, hairy. Foliage fragrant 

 when crushed, turning bright yellow in the autumn. Terminal bud >. 

 inch long, long-pointed, tlattish, sulphur-yellow, granular; lateral buds 

 much smaller, somewhat 4-angled. 



Flowers and Fruits: Flowers produced in May or June after the 

 leaves, the staminate in pendulous, green, slightly hairy catkins, :i-4 

 inches long, borne in clusters of three; scales 3-lobed, hairy; stamens 

 4. yellow. Pistillate flowers in 2-5-flowered clusters. }£ inch long, angled, 

 Bred with yellow hairs; calyx 4-lobed, hairy; corolla 0; stigma- 2, 

 greenish. Fruit an ovate to globular nut, about 1 inch long, with a 

 yellow, scurfy surface and a very thin husk splitting half-way to the 

 base along four sides, with more or less winged sutures at the top, nut 

 smooth, globular. •'"•i-l 1 , inch thick, gray, tinged with red, shell thin; 

 kernel fleshy, but bitter, not edible, ripening late in October. 



Bark, Twius and Wood: The twigs are greenish and more or less 

 downy, but become brownish and finally gray. Hark on old branches 

 and main trunk close and gray or gray tinged with brown or red, smooth 

 or often broken up into closely connected, shallow ridges, rarely broken 

 into scales or plates. Wood dark brown with lighter colored sapwood, 

 close-grained, heavy, very hard, strong, tough, elastic, durable; an ex- 

 cellent fuel. 



Distribution in the State: This is the only common hickory in 

 Nebraska and it is confined to woods of the southeastern corner of the 

 te from Richardson county northward to Cass county and westward 

 t<. Pawnee, Gage and Lancaster counties where it is often seen mingled 

 with the elms, oaks and ashes of the gallery woods along the streams 

 and upon the slopes and ridges. This is the most westerly species of our 

 hickories. Map 21. 



Remark-: The bitternut may be readily distinguished from OUT 

 other three hickories by moans <»f the slender, sulphur-colored buds, the 



ftller leaves with their narrow leaflets, and the smaller nuts with 

 their thin leathery husk, thin shell, and very bitter kernels. This 

 - often found in very wet soil farther east and for that reason 

 it is called "swam]) hickory" in some localities. The ' nay be pi 



planting the nuts where the trees are to -row; the t r< ■■ 



n the young ones, are difficult to transplant. 



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