Pignut Hickory
Carya glabra (Mill.) Spach. [Hicoria glabra (Mill.) Britt.] [Carya porcina Nutt.]
HABIT.—A tree usually 50-65 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 1-3 feet; forming a low, rather narrow, open crown of slender, often contorted branches.
LEAVES.—Alternate, compound, 8-12 inches long. Leaflets usually 5-7, the upper 3-6 inches long, 2-2-1/2 inches broad; subsessile, except the terminal; oblong to obovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed; sharply serrate; thick and firm; glabrous, dark yellow-green above, paler beneath. Petioles long, slender, glabrous or pubescent. Foliage fragrant when crushed.
FLOWERS.—May, after the leaves; monoecious; the staminate in pendulous, ternate catkins 3-7 inches long, slender, yellow-green, tomentose; scales 3-lobed, nearly glabrous; stamens 4, with orange anthers; the pistillate in crowded, 2-5-flowered spikes, 1/4 inch long; calyx 4-toothed, hairy; corolla 0; stigmas 2, yellow.
FRUIT.—October; variable in size and shape, 1-1/2-2 inches long, with thin husk splitting half-way and sometimes nearly to the base; nut obscurely 4-ridged, with thin or thick, hard shell and small, sweet or slightly bitter kernel which is hard to remove.
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal bud 1/4-1/2 inch long, dome-shaped, greenish or grayish, smooth or finely downy.
BARK.—Twigs greenish, nearly glabrous, becoming reddish, and finally grayish; thick, hard and grayish on the trunk, with a firm, close surface divided by small fissures and sometimes broken into plates.
WOOD.—Heavy, hard, very strong, tough, close-grained, elastic, dark brown, with thick, whitish sapwood.
DISTRIBUTION.—Occurs only in the extreme southern portion of the Lower Peninsula. Common within its range.