Michigan Trees: A Handbook of the Native and Most Important Introduced Species

by Charles Herbert Otis

4. Staminate flower, enlarged.

5. Pistillate flower, enlarged.

6. Fruit, × 1.

JUGLANDACEAE

Small Pignut Hickory

Carya microcarpa Nutt. [Hicoria odorata (Marsh.) Sarg.] [Hicoria microcarpa (Nutt.) Britt.] [Hicoria glabra, v. odorata Sarg.]

HABIT.—A tree usually 50-70 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-3 feet; forming an oblong or sometimes rounded crown of slender, spreading branches.

LEAVES.—Alternate, compound, 8-12 inches long. Leaflets usually 5-7, the upper 3-6 inches long, 2-2-1/2 inches broad; sessile, except the terminal; oblong to ovate-lanceolate, long-pointed; sharply serrate; thick and firm; glabrous, dark yellow-green above, lighter beneath. Petioles long, glabrous. Foliage fragrant when crushed.

FLOWERS.—May, after the leaves; monoecious; the staminate in pendulous, ternate catkins 3-7 inches long, slender, greenish, glabrous; stamens 4, with orange anthers; the pistillate in 2-5-flowered spikes, 1/4 inch long; calyx 4-toothed, hairy; corolla 0; stigmas 2, yellow.