MOCKERNUT HICKORY
Carya tomentosa (Poir.) Nutt.
Other Name: White Hickory.
Growth Form: Medium or tall tree to 90 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown rounded, the branchlets either erect or hanging.
Bark: Dark gray, shallowly furrowed, not scaly, often with a diamond-shaped pattern.
Twigs: Slender or relatively stout, usually hairy, gray; leaf scars alternate, 3-lobed, not elevated, with several bundle traces.
Buds: Ovoid, rounded or pointed at the tip, up to nearly 1 inch long, reddish-brown, hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnately compound, with 5-9 leaflets; leaflets broadly lanceolate to oblanceolate, pointed at the tip, rounded or tapering to the base, up to 8 inches long, about half as wide, finely toothed along the edge, yellow-green and hairy on the upper surface, paler and hairy on the lower surface.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne separately, but on the same tree, appearing after the leaves have begun to unfold, minute, without petals, the staminate crowded in slender, drooping catkins, the pistillate in groups of 2-5.
Fruit: Ellipsoid or obovoid or spherical, up to 2 inches across, the husk reddish-brown, up to ¼ inch thick, smooth or slightly hairy, the nut sometimes 4-angled, reddish-brown, the seed sweet but small.
Wood: Heavy, hard, strong, coarse-grained, dark brown.