Bitternut hickory

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Bitternut hickory leaf

Bitternut hickory

Bitternut hickory staminate catkins

Bitternut hickory fruit

Bitternut hickory

Bitternut hickory staminate flowers

Bitternut hickory fruit

Bitternut hickory leaf

Bitternut hickory buds

Bitternut hickory staminate flowers

Bitternut hickory buds

Bitternut hickory

Bitternut hickory bark

Morphology

Trunk

Diameter 12 to 30 inches; bark gray, close, shallow-furrowed, smooth on young trees, small, tight plates and ridges on mature trees; branches ascending, crown widest near top.

Twigs

Greenish, becoming brown, slender, rigid, mostly glabrous, lenticels prominent; leaf scars large, shield-shaped; bundle scars numerous, in 3 groups; terminal bud sulfur-yellow, scurfy, narrowly oblong, .3 to .6 inch, somewhat flattened; lateral buds egg-shaped, much smaller, 1/8 to 1/5 inch, pubescent or scurfy.

Leaves

Alternate, odd-pinnately compound, deciduous, 6 to 12 inches long; petiole slender, 2 to 2.8 inches long; leaflets usually 7-9; petiolules 1/12 to 1/3 inch; terminal 3 largest, obovate, 4 to 6 inches long, 2 to 2.4 inches wide, terminal leaflet widest at middle or near outer end; lateral leaflets elliptic to lanceolate, 1.6 to 4 inches long, .8 to 2 inches wide; base of terminal leaflet tapering to point, bases of laterals unequally rounded or wedge-shaped; margins toothed; tips tapering to point; upper surface bright green, glabrous; lower surface paler, midrib downy pubescent.

Flowers

May, after leaves partially grown, monoecious. Staminate catkins in clusters of 3 on peduncle .4 to 1.2 inch long; bracts at base of peduncle, lanceolate, pubescent; catkins 3.2 to 4.8 inches long, drooping, pubescent, many-flowered; flowers green, small, each with 3 pubescent bracts; stamens 4, anthers yellow, hairy. Pistillate flowers 2-3 in cluster, terminal on new growth, involucre 1/4 to 2/5 inch long, yellow, barrel-shaped, scurfy, lobes 4, green, acute, pubescent; corolla absent; stigmas 2, green, stout.

Fruit

September and October; solitary or paired, nearly spherical to obovate, .6 to 1.2 inch long, .8 to 1 inch wide; husk brown, rough, scurfy, with 4 vertical ridges or wings extending from tip to near middle; nut light brown, egg-shaped, smooth; kernel fleshy, bitter.

Ecology

Habitat

Wooded uplands, bottomland woods, stream banks, floodplains; rich, loamy or gravelly soil.

Distribution

East 2/5 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Excellent fuel source. Used to smoke meats. Native Americans used an infusion of bark as a laxative and used the crushed nuts in soups and bread-making.

Additional Notes