Identifying Hardwoods Growing on Pine Sites: Forest Service General Technical Report SO-15

Hickories have alternate compound leaves with 5 to 13 leaflets. They are monoecious; that is, the stamens and pistil are borne in separate flowers on the same plant. Flowers generally develop after the leaves are three-fourths to full grown. Staminate flowers are in catkins, which occur on last year’s wood and usually have three branches. The stalkless pistillate flowers are in several-flowered spikes at the apex of the current season’s growth. Catkins last from 10 days to 3 weeks and are usually not useful in distinguishing the species. The fruit, however, is widely used for identification. The husk may be very thin (about 1 mm), moderately thick (3 to 5 mm), or very thick (more than 5 mm). Similarly, the shell may be thin, moderately thick, or very thick. The meat varies from sweet to bitter. Upon drying, the husk usually separates along sutures and frees the nut. In some species the husk partly splits at the sutures but still encloses the nut when it falls. Such nuts are usually sterile, because the meat is seldom filled out.

For identification purposes use nuts from the ground with caution; if more than one species grows in the vicinity, the fruits could be mixed. Also some trees shed defective or sterile fruits early, and these fruits are often different in shape and size from typical fruit.

Hickories are generally divided into true hickories, which have overlapping (imbricate) bud scales, and pecan hickories, which have valvate bud scales. True hickories are divided into those with tight bark and those with loose bark. Mockernut Hickory, Carya tomentosa Nutt., a tight bark species, has very pubescent leaves, large buds, and a thick husk over a large nut. Pignut Hickory, C. glabra (Mill.) Sweet, also a tight bark hickory, has three to nine glabrous leaflets and a tardily dehiscing husk about 3 mm thick. Shagbark Hickory, C. ovata (Mill.) K. Koch, is one of the few species with bark in thin, loose plates. It has small buds and usually has five leaflets. Bitternut Hickory, C. cordiformis (Wangenh.) K. Koch, belongs to the pecan hickory group and has yellow buds with valvate scales. It also has tight bark, thin four-winged husks, thin shells, and bitter meat.

Oaks are also monoecious, and staminate flowers are in drooping catkins, which consist of a central, flexible axis with sessile, apetalous and pubescent flowers. They are most abundant on the developing new twigs. Although catkins vary among oaks, they are usually not used as distinguishing characteristics because they last only 2 to 3 weeks. Pistillate flowers occur on wood of the previous season and in leaf axils of twigs. In red oaks, however, pistillate flowers on current twigs do not mature until the second fall.