Twigs: Slender, brown or gray, tough, smooth, usually with lenticels; leaf scars alternate, 3-lobed, not elevated, usually with several bundle traces.
Buds: More or less rounded but coming to a short point at the tip, tan or grayish, usually minutely yellow-dotted, the scales hairy all along the edges up to ⅔ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with usually 7, sometimes 5, leaflets; leaflets lance-shaped sometimes curved, pointed at the tip, tapering or somewhat rounded at the base, finely toothed along the edges, green and smooth on the upper surface, minutely dotted and sometimes with some hairs on the lower surface, up to 6 inches long, up to 2 inches broad.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, after the leaves have begun to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate crowded in slender, drooping catkins, the pistillate in groups of 1-2.
Fruit: Ellipsoid, rarely spherical, up to 1¼ inch long, the husk green and minutely warty, thin, splitting all the way to the base, the nut somewhat 4-angled, the seed sweet.
Wood: Heavy, hard, brown.
Uses: Tool handles, fuel.
Habitat: Wooded slopes.
Range: New Hampshire across to Wisconsin, south to Arkansas, east to Georgia.
Distinguishing Features: This Hickory cannot always be reliably distinguished from the Pignut Hickory. However, it usually has a somewhat scaly bark, seven leaflets, minutely yellow-dotted buds, and fruits which split all the way to the base.