Shagbark hickory

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Shagbark hickory habit

Shagbark hickory leaf

Shagbark hickory staminate inflorescence

Shagbark hickory

Shagbark hickory fruit

Shagbark hickory bark

Shagbark hickory leaf

Shagbark hickory buds

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; bark light gray, fissures shallow, vertical ridges flat-topped, curling and exfoliating in long vertical strips; wood light brown, hard.

Twigs

Reddish brown to grayish brown, rigid, glabrous or hirsute; leaf scars cordate; pith greenish brown, solid; buds brown or reddish brown, ovoid, .2 to .7 inch, apex obtuse, scales glabrate or tomentose.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, odd-pinnately compound, 8 to 14 inches; petiole 3.2 to 4.8 inches, glabrous or hirsute; leaflets (3-)5(-7), obovate to ovate or elliptic, not sickle-shaped, 1.6 to 8 inches long, 1.2 to 3.2 inches wide, base unequally wedge-shaped, margins serrate, with tufts of hairs near apices of teeth, apex acuminate, lower surfaces light green, with tufts of hairs along veins and scattered yellow scales, upper surfaces green to yellowish green, glabrous or with scattered simple and tufted hairs and yellow scales; petiolule of terminal leaflet .2 to .6 inch.

Flowers

Inflorescences staminate catkins 3, on wood of the previous or current year, pendent, cylindric, 100-200-flowered, 2.4 to 4.8 inches; peduncles .4 to 1.2 inch, pedicels more or less absent; pistillate spikes terminating new growth, 1-3-flowered; peduncles 0 to .12 inch; pedicels absent. Flowers unisexual, more or less radially symmetric; staminate: sepals 0 or 4, connate proximally; petals absent; stamens 4-5; pistillate: sepals 0 or 4, connate proximally; petals absent; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 1-locular; styles 2; stigmas yellowish green to green.

Fruit

September-October; nuts enclosed in dehiscent husk, 1-3, globose to nearly globose, 1.2 to 1.6 inch, husk brown to reddish brown, splitting to base, not prominently ridged or winged, smooth; nuts tan, globose to ovoid, slightly compressed, ca. 1 inch long, .7 to 1 inch wide, 4-angled; seed 1.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist to dry upland forests and woodlands, stream banks, pastures, occasionally floodplain forests.

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes