KINGNUT HICKORY
Carya laciniosa (Michx. f.) Loud.
Other Names: Big Shellbark Hickory; Riverbank Hickory.
Growth Form: Large tree up to 100 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown oblong to ovoid, with drooping lower branches; trunk straight, columnar, stout.
Bark: Light gray, soon separating into long, thick, vertical plates which curve away from the trunk.
Twigs: Stout, gray or brown, conspicuously dotted with orange lenticels; leaf scars alternate, shield-shaped or 3-lobed, not elevated, usually with several bundle traces.
Buds: Elongated, dark brown, hairy, up to ¾ inch long, the outer scales with a long, stiff point.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with 5-9 leaflets; leaflets lance-shaped to ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the base, finely toothed along the edges, dark green and mostly smooth on the upper surface, paler and softly hairy on the lower surface, up to 10 inches long and up to half as wide.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing after the leaves have begun to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate in slender, drooping catkins, the pistillate in clusters of 2-5.
Fruit: Spherical, often depressed at the top, up to 2¼ inches across, the husk divided all the way to the base into four sections, minutely orange-speckled and sometimes hairy, the nut with conspicuous ridges, the seed very sweet.