Shagbark Hickory

Carya ovata

Shagbark Hickory 

This large tree in the walnut family produces nuts that are not only edible to wildlife, but also considered a safe and flavorful wild nut option for humans, having been a staple food in the diets of indigenous people. Mature trees are easily identified by their shaggy vertical bark, which among other important uses, provides a valuable roosting place, or hibernaculum, for bats during the summer. The Shagbark Hickory’s wood is tough and hard, which inspired General (later President) Andrew Jackson’s nickname given to him by his militia, “Old Hickory.” 

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

Shagbark Hickory  Carya ovata (Mill.) K. Koch  

COMMON NAMES shagbark hickory, scalybark hickory, little shellbark hickory  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves alternate, pinnately compound usually with five leaflets, margin serrate , and ciliate; fruit a large, round nut enclosed by a thick husk with four deep sutures splitting to the base; bark gray and shaggy with loose curved plates.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, deciduous, and up to 40 cm (15.7 in) long, with five but sometimes seven leaflets and a stout and pubescent or glabrous rachis. Leaflets are variable in shape (from widely obovate with an abruptly acuminate apex to elliptical or lanceolate), 8-18 cm (3.1-7.1 in) long, and sessile; margin is serrate with fine tufts of hair; underside is glabrous or pubescent; autumn color is yellow. Twigs are stout, red-brown, and glabrous or pubescent, with lenticels; leaf scar is heart shaped to semicircular with numerous bundle scars. The terminal bud is up to 2 cm (0.8 in) long and ovoid; outer scales are dark, pubescent, and very loose; inner scales are paler with silky hairs. Flowers are imperfect and appear with the leaves in the spring; staminate flowers are in drooping catkins; pistillate flowers are in terminal spikes. Fruit is a nut, egg shaped or nearly round, up to 4 cm (1.6 in) long, and white to light brown, with four ridges and a sweet kernel; husk is depressed at the apex, brown to black, shiny, and very thick (12 mm), with four deep sutures that split to the base and a pale interior; fruit matures in the fall. Bark is smooth or lightly grooved on small trees; large trees are gray and shaggy with curved, loose plates. The growth form is up to 39 m (130 ft) in height and 1.2 m (4 ft) in diameter.  

HABITAT Moist upland sites, swamp edges, and in well-drained bottomlands  

NOTES Common associates of shagbark hickory include tulip-poplar, sugar maple, eastern white pine, white oak, northern red oak, and black oak on upland sites, and in bottoms bitternut hickory, boxelder, white ash, sweetgum, bottomland oaks, and sugarberry. The wood is white to red-brown, hard, and heavy, and is used for pulpwood, handles, furniture, paneling, flooring, novelty items, and fuel. The nuts are eaten by waterfowl, black bear, foxes, squirrels, and other small mammals.  

Carya is derived from a Greek word meaning “walnut tree”; ovata means “egg shaped.”  

SIMILAR SPECIES Southern shagbark hickory (Carya carolinae-septentrionalis [Ashe] Engl. & Graebn.)  is found in bottoms and moist woods and on limestone soils. It is distinguished by smaller buds with shiny reddish or blackish outer scales, smaller fruit (nut up to 3.0 cm [1.2 in] long, husk 3-9 mm [0.1-0.4 in] thick), and slender black twigs.