Traditional uses and benefits of Shagbark Hickory

Item: Traditional uses and benefits of Shagbark Hickory
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Shagbark hickory Quick Facts
Name:	Shagbark hickory
Scientific Name:	Carya ovata
Origin	Eastern North America but is largely absent from the southeastern and Gulf coastal plains and the lower Mississippi Delta
Colors	Green when young turning to brown to reddish-brown as they mature
Shapes	Drupe 2.5 to 4.0 cm (1 to 1+1⁄2 in) long, an edible nut with a hard, bony shell, contained in a thick, green four-sectioned husk
Health benefits	Beneficial for headaches, rheumatism, coronary heart disease, Central Nervous System and kidney health

Carya ovata, commonly known as shagbark hickory or shellbark hickory, is a common hickory belonging to Juglandaceae (Walnut family) in the Eastern United States and southeast Canada. The plant is native to eastern North America but is largely absent from the southeastern and Gulf coastal plains and the lower Mississippi Delta. It is found from southeastern Nebraska and southeastern Minnesota eastward through southern Ontario and Quebec to Maine and extends southward to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. Disjunct populations have been reported in the mountains of northeastern Mexico. Few of the popular common names of the plant are shagbark hickory, shellbark hickory, scalybark hickory, shagbark, upland hickory, Carolina Hickory, Caryer ovale, Noyer tender, mockernut and Whiteheart Hickory.

The genus name Carya is the Greek name for walnut, and in Greek mythology Laconian princess Carya had a love affair with the god Dionysus; after her death, he memorialized her by changing her into a fruitful walnut tree. The specific epithet ovata means egg-shaped, referring to the nut, and the common name hickory was adapted from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora, referring to a staple food of pounded hickory nuts and water. The common name refers to the way the bark peels away from the trunk in long strips. Nuts were an important food source to Native Americans and early settlers, and are commercially sold today. Nuts are attractive to a variety of wildlife. Bark of young trees is gray and smooth, but exfoliates in long strips with age. Hickory wood is often used to cure/smoke meats. It is also an excellent firewood/fuel. The wood is extremely hard and is used to make a variety of products including tool handles, ladders, gun stocks and furniture.

Shagbark Hickory Facts

Name	Shagbark hickory
Scientific Name	Carya ovata
Native	Eastern North America but is largely absent from the southeastern and Gulf coastal plains and the lower Mississippi Delta. It is found from southeastern Nebraska and southeastern Minnesota eastward through southern Ontario and Quebec to Maine and extends southward to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas. Disjunct populations have been reported in the mountains of northeastern Mexico
Common Names	Shagbark hickory, shellbark hickory, scalybark hickory, shagbark, upland hickory, Carolina Hickory, Caryer ovale, Noyer tender, mockernut, Whiteheart Hickory
Name in Other Languages	Bulgarian: Yaytsevydno khykory (яйцевидно хикори) Catalan: Noguera blanca americana Czech: Ořechovec vejčitý Dutch: Witte bitternoot English: Caryer ovale, Noyer tender, Shagbark hickory, Shellbark hickory, Upland hickory, mockernut, Whiteheart Hickory, Shag-Bark Hickory Finnish: Valkohikkori French: Carya blanc, Caryer ovale, Noyer blanc, Noyer tender, Arbre à noix piques, Caryer blanc, Noix douces, hickory veritable, noyer tendre German: Schindelborkige Hickorie, Schuppenrindenhickory Hungarian: Fehér hikoridió Italian: Hickory minore Mexico: Nogal Cimarron, nogal motudo, nogal rayado, nogalillo Netherlands: Bitternoot, witte Norwegian: Skihickory Polish: Orzesznik pięciolistkowy Russian: Kariya yaytsevidnaya (Кария яйцевидная) Slovak: Orechovec Spanish: Caria blanca, nogal americano Swedish: Skidhickory Ukrainian: Kariya ovalʹna (Карія овальна), kariya bila (карія біла) USA: Carolina hickory, scalybark hickory, shellbark hickory, upland hickory
Plant Growth Habit	Medium to large, slow-growing, long-lived, broadly conical, deciduous hardwood tree
Growing Climates	Dry upland slopes, lowland, valleys, lower slopes of wooded bluffs, in ravines, at the edges of swamps, wet bottomlands, rocky hillsides, limestone outcrops, drier areas of floodplain woodlands, bluffs, and edges of limestone glades
Soil	On deep, rich, moist soils. It occurs on soils derived from a variety of sedimentary and metamorphic parent materials and grows across a wide range of soil fertility conditions. It appears to be tolerant of soils with high concentrations of lead and zinc
Plant Size	60 or 80 feet (20-25 m) in height and up 20 inches (51 cm) in diameter. On favorable sites, trees may grow to 131 feet (40 m) or more in height and reach up to 9 feet 8 inches (295 cm) in diameter
Root	Deep Taproot with spreading lateral roots
Bark	Initially smooth and gray then becoming dark gray, fissured and deeply furrowed, exfoliating in long strips or broad plates, persisting and curling away from stem
Branchlets	Greenish to brown, stout or slender, glabrous or pubescent
Twigs	Stout, brown and hairy when young, becoming gray and smooth; pores pale and elongated
Buds	Terminal bud ovoid, 0.6–1.8 cm long, tan to black, glabrous or tomentose
In Leaf	June to October
Leaf	Alternate, pinnately compound leaves are odd-pinnate with 5 leaflets. Individual leaflets are 3-8 inches long and about one-half as much across. The terminal leaflet is the largest, while the lowest lateral leaflets (first pair of a compound leaf) are the smallest. Leaflets are obovate or broadly elliptic in shape and their margins are serrated. Tiny tufts of hair occur along the teeth of the margins, although these tend to fade away with age
Flowering season	April – June
Flower	Shagbark hickory is monoecious. Staminate flowers are borne on long-stalked catkins at the tip of old wood or in the axils of the previous season’s leaves. Pistillate flowers occur in short terminal spikes
Fruit Shape & Size	Drupe 2.5 to 4.0 cm (1 to 1+1⁄2 in) long, an edible nut with a hard, bony shell, contained in a thick, green four-sectioned husk which turns dark and splits off at maturity in the fall
Fruit Color	Green when young turning to brown to reddish-brown as they mature
Propagation	By seed and by vegetative means
Lifespan	About 200 years, but some longer-lived shagbarks can continue to produce seeds until age 300
Season	October to November
Varieties	Carya ovata var. ovata (Miller) K. Koch Carya ovata var. australis (Ashe) Little
Precautions	They may cause allergies or allergenic reactions to people who are allergic to nuts.

Plant Description

Shagbark hickory is a medium to large, slow-growing, long-lived, broadly conical, deciduous hardwood tree that normally grows about 60 or 80 feet (20-25 m) in height and up 20 inches (51 cm) in diameter. On favorable sites, trees may grow to 131 feet (40 m) or more in height and reach up to 9 feet 8 inches (295 cm) in diameter and can live more than 350 years. The tallest measured shagbark, located in Savage Gulf, Tennessee, is over 150 ft. (46 m) tall. Mature shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark. This characteristic is, however, only found on mature trees; young specimens have smooth bark. The plant is found growing in dry upland slopes, lowland, valleys, lower slopes of wooded bluffs, in ravines, at the edges of swamps, wet bottomlands, rocky hillsides, limestone outcrops, drier areas of floodplain woodlands, bluffs, and edges of limestone glades. The plant prefers deep, rich, moist soils. It occurs on soils derived from a variety of sedimentary and metamorphic parent materials and grows across a wide range of soil fertility conditions. It appears to be tolerant of soils with high concentrations of lead and zinc.

Bark

Bark is distinctive, at first smooth and gray then becoming dark gray and deeply furrowed into long wide plates, that remain attached in the middle but curve away from the trunk at each end – resulting in the shaggy appearance the tree is named for.

Twigs

Twigs are brownish and stout with numerous lighter colored lenticels, minutely hairy and with the 3-lobed leaf scar the Walnut family usually has, which is said to resemble a monkey face. Buds are tan to red-brown to dark brown and variously covered in matted hairs. The terminal bud is oval to egg-shaped with slightly flaring scales and may be nearly ¾ inch long. The inner bud scales greatly expand after bud-break and become quite showy, resembling flower petals.

Leaves

Alternate, pinnately compound leaves are odd-pinnate with 5 leaflets (less often with 3 or 7 leaflets) and about 8-14 inches long. Rachis (central stalk) of each compound leaf is light green and either glabrous or sparsely short-pubescent. At maturity, individual leaflets are 3-8 inches long and about one-half as much across. The terminal leaflet is the largest, while the lowest lateral leaflets (first pair of a compound leaf) are the smallest. Leaflets are obovate or broadly elliptic in shape and their margins are serrated. Tiny tufts of hair occur along the teeth of the margins, although these tend to fade away with age. For mature leaves, the upper leaflet surface is medium to dark green, shiny, and hairless, while the lower leaflet surface is pale green, dull, and hairless (or nearly so). Leaves turn yellow to golden brown in fall. Sometimes the lower leaflet surface of mature leaves has short fine hairs along the veins. At the base of each leaflet, there is a short petiolule (basal stalklet) that is light green and either glabrous or short-pubescent. Petiolules of the lateral leaflets are about 1/8 inches (3 mm.) long, while the petiolule of each terminal leaflet is about ½ inches long. The petioles of the compound leaves are 3-6 inches long, light green, and either glabrous or sparsely short-pubescent.

Leaf arrangement	Alternate
Leaf type	Odd-pinnately compound
Leaf margin	Serrate
Leaf shape	Oblanceolate, oblong, lanceolate
Leaf venation	Pinnate
Leaf type and persistence	Deciduous
Leaf blade length	4 to 8 inches
Leaf color	Green
Fall color	Yellow
Fall characteristic	Showy

Flower

Shagbark Hickory is monoecious, producing separate male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers on the same tree. The male flowers are produced in drooping yellowish green catkins near the tips of twigs. These catkins are arranged in groups of 3 (catkins in each group sharing the same basal stalk) and they are 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) long and develop from axils of previous season leaves or from inner scales of the terminal buds at the base of the current growth. Individual male flowers are yellowish green, less than 1/8 inches (3 mm.) across, consisting of several (with up to 10) hairy stamens and an insignificant calyx. Each male flower is partially hidden by a 3-lobed bract. The female flowers are produced in short greenish spikes (about 1/3 inches or 8 mm. long) at the tips of young shoots. There are typically 2-3 female flowers per spike. Individual female flowers are about 1/8 inches (3 mm.) long and ovoid in shape, consisting of a calyx and a pistil with spreading green stigma at the top. The blooming period occurs from April – June as the leaves develop. The flowers are cross-pollinated by the wind.

Flower color	Green
Flower characteristics	Showy

Fruit

Fertile female flowers are replaced by nearly sessile clusters of 1-3 fruits that develop during the summer and mature during autumn of the same year. Individual fruits are 1½-2 inches long and 1½-2 inches across (or a little less). They are oval to subglobose or obovoid, depressed at the apex, and enclosed in a thin husk developed from the floral involucre. The fruit ripens in September and October and seeds are dispersed from September through December. The thick hairless husks of the fruits are light green while immature, becoming brown to brownish black at maturity. The husks become dry at maturity and each husk is divided into 4 segments that are indented at their margins, providing the fruit with a ribbed appearance. The enclosed nut is light brownish white, oblong-ovate, somewhat compressed, usually prominently four-angled at the apex and rounded at the base. The shell is relatively thin and the kernel is sweet and edible. The bulk of the edible embryonic plant is cotyledonary tissue. Nuts are dispersed by animals. Trees must be around 40 years of age to produce a good crop. Cold stratification is needed for seed germination.

Fruit shape	Oval, round
Fruit length	1 to 3 inches
Fruit covering	Dry or hard
Fruit color	Brown, green
Fruit characteristics	Attracts squirrels/mammals; showy; fruit/leaves a litter problem