Fruit more or less obovoid, about 1′ long and ⅘′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base.
Distribution. Southern New England to Missouri and northern Arkansas; on the mountains of North Carolina, on the coast of Georgia and in north central Alabama. The common “Pignut” in the middle western states, varying to f. acuta Sarg. with nuts pointed at the ends and closer bark; only near Rochester, Munroe County, New York.
Other forms of C. ovalis are var. hirsuta Sarg. (Hicoria glabra hirsuta Ashe) with obovoid compressed fruit narrowed into a stipitate base, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness, scaly bark, pubescent winter-buds, leaves with pubescent petioles and leaflets pubescent on the lower surface; a common tree on the mountains of North Carolina up to altitudes of 2000° above the sea; and var. borealis Sarg. (Hicoria borealis Ashe) with pubescent branchlets and winter-buds, leaves pubescent early in the season, ellipsoidal or ovoid flattened fruit with a husk ⅛′—⅕′ in thickness, an ovoid nut ridged to the base, and scaly bark; only in southeastern Michigan.
14. [Carya floridana] Sarg.
Leaves 6′—8′ long, with slender petioles rusty pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, with 5 or rarely 7 lanceolate to oblanceolate leaflets long-pointed and acuminate at apex, unsymmetrical and rounded or cuneate at base, serrate with remote cartilaginous teeth, sessile or the terminal leaflet short-stalked, covered when they unfold with rufous pubescence, soon glabrous, at maturity thin, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, yellow-green above, often brownish below, the upper three 3½′—4′ long, 1′—2′ wide, and about twice larger than those of the lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in long-stalked scurfy pubescent aments 1′—1½′ in length, produced at the base of branchlets of the year from the axils of bud-scales, and often of leaves, scurfy pubescent, their bract ovate, acuminate, a third longer than the calyx-lobes; stamens 4 or 5, anthers yellow, slightly villose near the apex; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered spikes, obovoid, thickly covered, like their bracts, with yellow scales. Fruit obovoid, gradually narrowed, rounded and sometimes slightly depressed at apex, narrowed below into a short stipe-like base, occasionally slightly winged at the sutures, often roughened by prominent reticulate ridges, puberulous and covered with small yellow scales, ⅘′—1½′ long, ¾′—1′ in diameter with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base by 2 or 3 sutures; nut pale or reddish, subglobose, not more than ⅗′ in diameter, or ovoid or rarely oblong, acute at base, narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly compressed, with a shell 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness.
A tree 50°—70° high with a trunk up to 20′ in diameter, slender spreading branches forming a broad head, and slender branchlets at first coated with rufous pubescence, soon puberulous or glabrous, bright red-brown and marked by pale lenticels during their first winter; or in dry sand often a shrub producing abundant fruit on stems 3° or 4° high. Winter-buds ovoid, acute or obtuse, the outer scales covered with thick rusty pubescence and more or less thickly with yellow or rarely silvery scales, the inner coated with pale pubescence; the terminal ⅕′—⅓′ in length and twice as large as the axillary buds. Bark slightly ridged, close dark gray-brown. Wood dark brown, with pale sapwood; probably used only for fuel.
Distribution. Dry sandy ridges and low hills, Florida; east coast, Volusia County to Jupiter Island, Palm Beach County; in the interior of the peninsula as a shrub, from Orange to De Soto Counties, and on the shores of Pensacola Bay.