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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 50: MOCKERNUT HICKORY
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

MOCKERNUT HICKORY

Carya alba, (L.) K. Koch.

Form.—Height 50-80 feet, diameter 1-2½ feet; trunk in the woods straight and free from limbs for about half its length; crown round or oblong, open.

Leaves.—Alternate, compound, 8-12 inches long; leaflets 5-7, of varying lengths; oblong to ovate-lanceolate, serrate, lustrous yellow-green above, paler and pubescent beneath; petioles pubescent.

Flowers.—May, with the leaves; monoecious; staminate flowers in pendulous green catkins; the pistillate in 2-5-flowered spikes.

Fruit.—Ovoid, 1½-2 inches long; husk thick, splitting nearly to the base; nut indistinctly angled with very hard thick shell and small edible kernel.

Bark.—Gray, tight, rough but not shaggy.

Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, tough, close-grained, elastic, brown with white sapwood.

Range.—Massachusetts and Ontario to Nebraska, Florida and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Common, especially on the hillsides and ridges east of the Alleghanies. Less frequent and scattered in the central and western counties.

Habitat.—Prefers rich, well-drained soils of open wooded hillsides.

Notes.—This tree has very thick sapwood which is the most valuable part of hickory wood. It is unsurpassed for handle material and other uses where strength and elasticity are desired. The nut kernels are of good quality but are small and hard to get. The pubescent leaf petioles and the thick husks and thick-walled nuts form easy marks for distinguishing this species from the common shell-bark. Big Bud Hickory and White Heart Hickory are other names for this tree.