Carya ovata
Carya ovata, the shagbark hickory, is a common hickory native to eastern North America, with two varieties. The trees can grow to quite a large size but are unreliable in their fruit output. The nut is consumed by wildlife and historically by Native Americans, who also used the wood.
Name
The word hickory is an aphetic form from earlier pohickory, short for even earlier pokahickory, borrowed from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora, hickory-nut meat or a nut milk drink made from it. Other names for this tree are Carolina Hickory, Scalybark Hickory, Upland Hickory, and Shellbark Hickory, with older binomial names of Carya ovata var. fraxinifolia, Carya ovata var. nuttallii, Carya ovata var. pubescens, Hicoria alba, Hicoria borealis, and Hicoria ovata.Description
It is a large, deciduous tree, growing well over tall, and can live more than 350 years. The tallest measured shagbark, located in Savage Gulf, Tennessee, is over tall. Mature shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark. This characteristic is, however, only found on mature trees; young specimens have smooth bark.The leaves are long, pinnate, with five leaflets, the terminal three leaflets much larger than the basal pair. The shagbark hickory is monoecious. Staminate flowers are borne on long-stalked catkins at the tip of old wood or in the axils of the previous season's leaves. Pistillate flowers occur in short terminal spikes. The fruit is a drupe long, an edible nut with a hard, bony shell, contained in a thick, green four-sectioned husk which turns dark and splits off at maturity in the fall. The terminal buds on the shagbark hickory are large and covered with loose scales.
C. ovata begins producing seeds at about 10 years of age, but large quantities are not produced until 40 years and will continue for at least 100. Nut production is erratic, with good crops every 3 to 5 years, in between which few or none appear and the entire crop may be lost to animal predation.
Taxonomy
The two varieties are:- Carya ovata var. ovata has its largest leaflets over long and nuts long.
- Carya ovata var. australis has its largest leaflets under long and nuts long.
Distribution
Shagbark hickory is found throughout most of the eastern United States, but it is largely absent from the southeastern and Gulf coastal plains and lower Mississippi Delta areas. An isolated population grows in eastern Canada as far north as Lavant Township, Canadian zone 4b. Scattered locations of shagbark hickory occur in the Sierra Madre Oriental of eastern Mexico.Shagbark hickory was introduced in Europe in the 17th century. It can still be found in Central Europe as a non-native species. The native geographical range is one of the widest among Hickory species, although the species is less prevalent now due to selective harvesting for wood.
Ecology
Red squirrels, gray squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks, and mice are consumers of hickory nuts. Other consumers include black bears, gray and red foxes, rabbits, and bird species such as mallards, wood ducks, bobwhites, and wild turkey.Uses
The nuts are edible with an excellent flavor. They are unsuitable for commercial or orchard production due to the long time it takes for a tree to produce sizable crops and unpredictable output from year to year. The nuts can be used as a substitute for the pecan in colder climates and have nearly the same culinary function. The bark is also used to flavor a maple-style syrup.Shagbark hickory nuts were an important staple of indigenous diet. Excavation of an ancient site at Victor Mills in Columbia County, Georgia found hickory nuts, processing tools and other artifacts indicating large-scale processing and storage of nuts. Native Americans used the kernel milk to make corn cakes, kanuchi and hominy. The nuts were a significant food source for the Algonquins. Shagbark hickory wood is used for smoking meat and for making the bows of Native Americans of the northern area. The lumber is heavy, hard, and tough, weighing 63 lb/ cu ft when air-dried, and has been employed for implements and tools that require strength. These include axles, axe handles, ploughs, skis, and drum sticks.