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''Carya cordiformis'', the bitternut hickory, also called bitternut, yellowbud hickory, or swamp hickory, is a large hickory species native to the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Notable for its unique sulphur-yellow buds, it is one of the most widespread hickories and is the northernmost species of pecan hickory (''Carya'' sect. ''Apocarya''). It is the shortest-lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years.


Description

It is a large
deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
, growing up to tall (exceptionally to ), with a trunk up to diameter. The
leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...
are long, pinnate, with 7–11 leaflets, each leaflet lanceolate, long, with the apical leaflets the largest but only slightly so. The
flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...
s are small wind-pollinated
catkin A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind- pollinated ( anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in '' Salix''). It contains many, usually unisexual flowers, arra ...
s, produced in spring. The
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
is a very bitter nut, long with a green four-valved cover which splits off at maturity in the fall, and a hard, bony shell. Another identifying characteristic is its bright sulfur-yellow winter bud. It is closely related to the
pecan The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...
, sharing similar leaf shape and being classified in the same section of the genus ''Carya'' sect. ''Apocarya'', but unlike the pecan, it does not have edible nuts. It is most readily distinguished from the pecan by the smaller number of leaflets, with many leaves having only 7 leaflets (rarely fewer than 9, and often 11–13, in the pecan). Hybrids with the pecan are known, and named ''Carya'' × ''brownii''. A hybrid between the shagbark hickory (''C. ovata'') is also recognized, and is known as Laney's hickory (''Carya'' ×''laneyi'').


Habitat

Bitternut hickory grows in moist mountain valleys along streambanks and in swamps. Although it is usually found on wet bottom lands, it grows on dry sites and also grows well on poor soils low in nutrients. The species is not included as a titled species in the Society of American Foresters forest cover types because it does not grow in sufficient numbers.


Range

Bitternut hickory grows throughout the eastern United States from southwestern New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and southern Quebec; west to southern Ontario, central Michigan, and northern Minnesota; south to eastern Texas; and east to northwestern Florida and Georgia. It is most common, however, from southern New England west to Iowa and from southern Michigan south to Kentucky. It is probably the most abundant and most uniformly distributed of all the hickories. It is most commonly found in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, in high elevations.


Taxonomy

The taxon was first described in 1787 as ''Juglans cordiformis'' by
Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim (8 February 1749 Sonneborn – 25 March 1800 Gumbinnen) was a German botanist specializing in forestry, and was the citing authority for a number of described eastern North American plant species. He was als ...
, and was transferred to the genus, ''
Carya Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...
'', in 1869 by Karl Koch.


Uses

Bitternut is used for lumber and pulpwood. Commercial stands are located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the "true" hickories. Because bitternut hickory wood is hard and durable, it is used for furniture, paneling, dowels, tool handles and ladders. Like other hickories, the
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
is used for
smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...
meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...
, and by Native Americans for making bows. Bitternut hickory seeds are eaten by rabbits, and both its seeds and bark are eaten by other wildlife. The
tannins Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widely applied to any large po ...
which give the nuts of bitternut hickory their bitter flavour are not fat soluble. As a result, it is possible to extract an edible oil from the nuts through pressing and separating the tannin containing pulp from the oil. Reportedly, the oil content of bitternut hickories reaches as high as 80%. The oil of bitternut hickory is reputed to have a mild and pleasant flavour, similar to that of
pecan The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...
oil.


Genetics

Bitternut hickory is a
diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...
species with two sets of sixteen chromosomes that readily hybridizes with other diploid hickory species with a few named
hican A hican is a tree resulting from a cross between a pecan and some other type of hickory (members of the genus '' Carya'') - or the nut from such a hybrid tree. Such crosses often occur naturally while most such hybrids produce unfilled nuts or h ...
varieties available. The pecan variety 'Major' has bitternut alleles at two simple sequence repeat loci indicating a cryptic cross that may also have involved ''C. ovata''.


Gallery

File:Bitternutrangemap.jpg, US range map of ''Carya cordiformis'' File:Carya cordiformis bud 2.jpg, Bud in winter File:Carya cordiformis bud.jpg, Expanding bud in spring File:Carya cordiformis leaf.jpg, Leaf File:Carya cordiformis male flowers.jpg, Catkins of male flowers File:Carya cordiformis (Bitternut Hickory) (33323804856).jpg, Bark File:Carya cordiformis leaves.jpg, Branch of a bitternut hickory with developing nuts File:Carya cordiformis (Bitternut Hickory) (37064132791).jpg, Maturing fruit File:Carya cordiformis AA.jpg, ''Carya cordiformis,'' 1940 accession, in fall


References


External links


''Carya cordiformis'' images at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University Plant Image Database
*Enzenbacher, Tiffany
"Plant Collecting in the Wisconsin Wilds - Part 2."
''Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University'' website, 6 September 2017. Accessed 21 May 2020.
"Roads, winter, Valley Road, hickories, 1900."
''Library Featured Images,'' Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University website, 5 February 2019. Accessed 21 May 2020. * *

{{Taxonbar, from=Q879016 cordiformis Trees of Northern America Hardwood forest plants Plants described in 1869