Carya tomentosa |
Carya |
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mockernut hickory |
caryer, hickory, hicorier, hybrid hickory |
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Habit | Trees, to 36 m. Bark dark gray, fissured or ridged. | Trees, rarely shrubs, 3-52 m. Bark gray or brownish, smooth with fissures in younger trees, becoming ridged and sometimes deeply furrowed or exfoliating with small platelike scales or long strips or broad plates. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Twigs | reddish brown, stout, hirsute and scaly. |
greenish, orangish, reddish, or rusty brown, or bronze, terete, slender or stout, pubescent and scaly or glabrous; leaf scars shield-shaped or 3-lobed, large; pith solid and homogeneous. |
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Leaves | 3-5 dm; petiole 3-12 cm, petiole and rachis hirsute, with conspicuous large and small round peltate scales. |
odd-pinnate; petiole pubescent and/or scaly or glabrous. |
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Leaflets | (5-)7-9, lateral petiolules 0-2 mm, terminal petiolules 2-13 mm; blades ovate to elliptic or obovate, not falcate, 4-19 × 2-8 cm, margins finely to coarsely serrate, apex acute, rarely acuminate; surfaces abaxially hirsute with unicellular, 2-8-rayed fasciculate and multiradiate hairs, and with large and small round peltate scales abundant, adaxially hirsute along midrib and major veins, puberulent with fasciculate hairs and scales in spring. |
3-17(-21), petiolulate, distal leaflets largest, 2-26 × 1-14 cm; surfaces abaxially with nonglandular hairs (unicellular common to all species, fasciculate with 2-8 rays in 1 rank, multiradiate with 8-17 rays in 2 ranks) and glandular scales (capitate-glandular and large peltate scales common to all species; small peltate scales round, irregular, or 2- or 4-lobed), adaxially with scattered hairs and scattered to abundant scales in spring or concentrated along midrib and secondary veins to essentially glabrous in the fall. |
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Pistillate flowers | in terminal few-flowered spikes. |
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Fruits | reddish brown, finely mottled, spheric to ellipsoid or obovoid, not compressed to compressed, 3-5 × 3-5 cm; husks rough, 4-10 mm thick, dehiscing to middle or nearly to base, sutures smooth; nuts tan, spheric to ellipsoid, compressed, prominently to faintly 4-angled, rugulose; shells thick. |
nuts enclosed in husks, compressed or not compressed, husks completely or partially dehiscing, sutures smooth or winged; nuts brown, reddish brown, or tan, sometimes mottled with black or tan, compressed or not compressed, angled or not angled, smooth, rugulose, or verrucose; shells thin or thick. |
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Seeds | sweet. |
sweet or bitter. |
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Terminal | buds tan (after early loss of outer scales), broadly ovoid, 8-20 mm, tomentose; bud scales imbricate; axillary buds protected by bracteoles fused into hood. |
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Staminate | catkins pedunculate, to 14 cm, stalks and bracts hirsute, scaly, apex of each bract with coarse hairs; anthers hirsute. |
catkins in fascicles of 3 (except sect. Rhamphocarya of se Asia) from 1st-, sometimes 2d-year twigs, sessile or pedunculate; stamens 3-10(-15) per flower, with or without hairs. |
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Bud | scales valvate or imbricate, glabrous or variously pubescent; axillary buds protected by pair of valvate bracteoles (i.e., prophylls) or bracteoles fused into hood. |
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x | = 16. |
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2n | = 64. |
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Carya tomentosa |
Carya |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Well-drained sandy soils, rolling hills and rocky hillsides, occasionally on limestone outcrops | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-900 m (0-3000 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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e North America; Mexico; e Asia |
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Discussion | Both the mockernut hickory and the shagbark hickory were formerly known as Carya alba (Linnaeus) K. Koch [or Hicoria alba (Linnaeus) Britton], based on Juglans alba of Linnaeus. A. J. Rehder (1945) pointed out that the original circumscription included two taxa, and C. alba (J. alba) should therefore be rejected as ambiguous in favor of C. tomentosa and C. ovata, respectively. Carya tomentosa hybridizes with C. texana (C. ×collina Laughlin) and is reported to hybridize with the diploid C. illinoinensis (C. ×schneckii Sargent). Cherokee Indians used Carya tomentosa medicinally as an analgesic, especially as an aid for polio, and as an oral and a cold aid; the Delaware, as a gynecological aid and a tonic (D. E. Moerman 1986). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 18 (11 in the flora). Carya was widespread during the Tertiary; fossils have been reported from the states of Colorado and Washington, and from China, Japan, Europe, and western Siberia. Today two sections of the genus occur in southeastern Asia (sect. Rhamphocarya and sect. Sinocarya) and two in North America (sect. Apocarya, the so-called pecan hickories, and sect. Carya hickories). Both 2n = 32 and 2n = 64 chromosome numbers are known for the genus; tetraploidy, however, is confined to sect. Carya. The commercial use of Carya is substantial. The cultivated pecan, C. illinoinensis, is the most important nut tree native to North America, and the wood o hickories is unequaled for its use in tool handles because of the combined strength and shock resistance. Hickory nuts are also an important, high-quality food source for wildlife because they are high in proteins and fats. Carya cordiformis, C. glabra, and C. ovata are grown extensively in central Europe for timber. Characters of the buds and bark are taxonomically important in Carya, but shoots with terminal buds and information about bark characteristics are frequently absent on herbarium specimens. Phenotypic variation from tree to tree is often considerable and difficult to quantify. Most of this variation undoubtedly results from adaptation to local and regional conditions; hybridization has probably played a subtle role as well. Sympatry of two or more species is common, and artificial pollinations suggest that even diploid × tetraploid crosses produce viable seed. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Juglandaceae > Carya | Juglandaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Juglans tomentosa | Hicoria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Poiret) Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 2: 221. (1818) | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 2: 220. 1818, name conserved | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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