I don’t know much about what’s normal for hickory nuts but I have trees all over my property. Most of them are a similar size as the small ones in the image but I found one tree that has really big ones.
Is this an abnormality or are my other trees just producing smaller than average nuts? They’re larger than pecans and as big as small walnuts!
As I recall, shag bark hickory makes small nuts, good flavor but a lot of work to get the meat out. Shell bark hickory makes large nuts with good flavor.
Pig nuts are large pear shaped but don’t have good flavor.
So compare the flovor.
The little ones are pig nut hickory also called bitter nut hickory. Carya cordiformis. Pigs and deer eat, but they are bitter to our taste. Typically has 7 leaflet, and the leaf size is smaller than others. The terminal bud is orange and paint brush shape which is a solid ID.
The larger ones are probabaly either Shellbark or Shagbark. Carya lancianosa and Carya ovata respectively. The two are similiar in appearance but Shellbarks prefer moist bottom ground while shag bark like it drier up on the ridge. Shagbark have golfball size nuts.
Shellbark bark is less shaggy and typically has 7 leaflets, and Shagbark has 9 leaflets. Typically.
There is also Mockernut hickory Carya tomentosa. It has a crazy thick shell around the nut and typically has 9 leaflets.
4 species here in Ohio.
Hope this helps, I’ve been studying hickory ID this past year.
Thanks. I’ll look at the leaves. The small ones are actually really tasty. They have a nice pecan and maple syrup like taste. The larger one was also good but not as good. It was also less dried out.
I’ll gather more nuts and pics.
The small ones are growing and look like shag bark but I don’t know what the trunks of the others you mentioned look like.
The pignuts will have kind of a smooth bark with typical cracking and fissuring like maybe red oak but more criss cross patterns. Not scaling and flaking at all like shagbark or shellbark.
The husk on pignut is thin like maybe 1/16"
Pignuts on my place also have lots of burls on the stems and trunks. Like tree tumors.
I’m still learning so, someone may correct me.
This is a nice shagbark hickory.
The nut has a fairly thick husk that separates in 4 pieces.
They crackout well and are delicious.
TNHunter
Ok. The small ones, in my pics, look like shag bark. The bark on the large one looks very different so it must be shell bark.
@Evdurtschi … I think your larger nut is probably a shellbark too.
They crack well and taste very similar to shagbark. I think they crack a little easier than shags.
There are no shellbarks in my county… that I know of. But they can be found in TN near the Tennessee river… in river bottoms.
Mockernut has a very thick shell… harder to crack. The tree bark sort of crisscrosses making diamond patterns. They have very thick husk too. They do not crack out as well as shags or shells.
They come out more in shreds.
The large nut cake from a tree growing right by the creek. Thanks for your help! It’s a tasty nut and it was easier to crack open.
@Evdurtschi
You have a shellbark nut and shagbark nuts from 3 different trees in your photo.
Shellbark bark, on mature trees, is sort of ‘shaggy’, but generally less so than on mature shagbark trees.
Thank you
Here in the East there is a venture to grow bitternut hickory (also called Yellowbud) that includes the plan to sell oil from the nuts. The oil is not bitter, and can efficiently be separated from the bitter tasting nut pulp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX9eGtSpV9c
When I was a kid, long ago, we had a timber with lots of hickory trees in central Illinois. Almost all were shagbark. But there was one that produced nuts that were 3 times larger. I believe those are called Kingnut Hickory. That size is normal for them. I always wondered if their nutmeats were as good as shagbark nuts. I never got to try them before we moved.
I just looked up Kingnut Hickory. Wikipedia says that is an alternate name for Shellbark Hickory. Now I know…
Shellbark and shagbark both can have good flavored nuts. My experience is that most of them are not intensely flavored, in other words, bland. Shellbark has very thick shell most of the time. A few have been found with large nutmeat and relatively thin shell.
