THE butternut, sometimes called the white walnut, is a smaller tree than the black walnut, although it may reach a height of 70 feet and a diameter of 3 feet. It is found all over the State, but the best is in the ravines of southern Illinois. The butternut is found from Maine to Michigan and southward to Kansas, Tennessee and northern Georgia. The trunk is often forked or crooked and this makes it less desirable for saw timber.
BUTTERNUT
Twig, one-half natural size. Leaf, one-third natural size.
The bark differs from that of the black walnut in being light gray on branches and on the trunk of small trees, becoming darker on large trees. This tree may also be distinguished from black walnut by the velvet collars just above the scars left by last year’s leaves. The twigs have chocolate-brown chambered pith and bear obliquely blunt winter buds somewhat flattened, brownish and hairy.
The compound leaves are 15 to 30 inches long, each with 11 to 17 sharp-pointed, oblong, finely toothed leaflets 2 to 3 inches long.
The staminate and pistillate flowers are on the same tree, the former in long yellowish-green drooping catkins and the latter are short with red-fringed stigmas.
The fruit is a nut enclosed in an oblong, somewhat pointed, yellowish-green husk, about 2 inches long, which is covered with short, rusty, clammy, sticky hairs. The nut has a rough, grooved shell and an oily, edible kernel.
The wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light brown, and takes a good polish. It is used for interior finish of houses and for furniture. A yellow or orange dye can be made from the husks of the nuts.
