article Related Topics:
Hickory_Creek :: Hickory :: Hickory_Hill :: Hickory_Hills :: Hickory_Ridge :: Hickory_Plains :: Hickory_Withe :: Hickory_Corners :: Hickory_Flat :: Hickory_Valley
 

For other meanings of Hickory please see Hickory (disambiguation).

Hickory is a tree of the genus Carya, including 17-19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and large nuts.

Of the 17-19 species, 12-13 are native to North America (11-12 in the United States, 1 in Mexico), and 5-6 species from China and Indochina.

Another Asian species, Beaked Hickory, previously listed as Carya sinensis, is now treated in a separate genus Annamocarya, as Annamocarya sinensis.

Hickory flowers are small yellow-green catkins produced in spring. They are anemophilous and self incompatible. The fruit is a globose or oval nut, 2-5 cm long and 1.5-3 cm diameter, enclosed in a four-valved husk which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, thin in a few, notably C. illinoinensis; it is divided into two halves which split apart when the seed germinates.

Species and classification

North America

Asia

Hickory is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Brown-tail and the Coleophora case-bearers C. laticornella and C. ostryae. A caterpillar called the hickory horn-devil, which eats foliage of hickory as well as walnut and other trees in the northeast U.S., is the larval form of the regal moth, Citheronia regalis (family Saturniidae).

Another insect that uses the hickory tree as a food source is the hickory leafstem gall phylloxera. Phylloxerans are related to aphids and have a similarly complex life cycle. Eggs hatch in early spring and the galls quickly form around the developing insects. Phylloxera galls may damage weakened or stressed hickories, but are generally harmless. Deformed leaves and twigs can rain down from the tree in the spring as squirrels break off infected tissue and eat the galls, possibly for the protein content of the phylloxera, or possibly because the galls are fleshy and tasty to the squirrels.

Uses

Hickory wood is extremely tough, yet flexible, and is valued for tool handles, bows (like yew), wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick, even though made of steel or graphite), walking canes etc. and for punitive use as a switch or rod (like hazel), and especially as a cane-like hickory stick in schools. Baseball bats (also used as substitute paddle or even modified for physical punishment) were formerly made of hickory but are now more commonly made of ash. Hickory is also highly prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high caloric content. Hickory wood is also a preferred type for smoke curing meats. In the American South, Hickory is very popular for cooking barbeque, because of the large amount of hickory that grows in the region, and because of the flavor that hickory adds to the meat.

A bark extract from Shagbark Hickory is also used in an edible syrup that is similar to maple syrup, with a slightly bitter, smoky taste.

The nuts of some species are palatable, while others are bitter and only suitable for animal feed. Shagbark and Shellbark Hickories, along with the Pecan, are regarded by some as the finest nut trees.

When cultivated for their nuts, note that because of their self-incompatibility, clonal (grafted) trees of the same cultivar cannot pollenize each other. Two or more different cultivars must be planted together for successful pollination. Seedlings (grown from hickory nuts) will usually have sufficient genetic variation.

External links

Fagales | Wood | Pollination

Hickory | Hickory | Carya | Carya | Carya | Hickory | Orzesznik | Hickory

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Hickory".

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