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Carya tomentosa - (image 1 of 5)

Taxonomy

Family: Juglandaceae

Habitat

Dry woods.

Associates

Distribution

MA to IN, southeast to IA and MO, south to FL and TX.

Morphology

Deciduous tree; bark gray, becoming dark gray and deeply furrowed in age, not separating into plates; terminal buds 10-25 mm, bearing some straight, appressed hairs; scales of the terminal bud more than 6, imbricate; leaflets mostly 7 or 9, persistently pubescent beneath with fascicled hairs, the terminal leaflet oblanceolate to obovate; fruit wingless, ellipsoid to obovoid, rarely ovoid, 3.5-5 cm, the husk 2-6 mm thick, eventually splitting to the base; nut 1.5-3 cm, slightly compressed to subterete, more or less angled, subglobose or ovoid to obovoid, rounded at the base, thick-walled.

Notes

Flowers early May to early June.

Wetland indicator: NA

While the kernel is edible, it is rather small relative to the thick husk hence the name mockernut.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

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