• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Cure Nursery

Native Plants of the Southeast

  • Home
  • All Plants
    • Search Our Plants by Plant Characteristics
    • Alphabetical by Scientific Name
    • Search Our Plants by Common Names
  • Availability & Pricing – Winter/Spring 2021
  • Resources
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Carya ovata
Shagbark Hickory

Photo by

The Shagbark Hickory is a stately deciduous tree important in the Oak-Hickory Forests of Eastern North America. It is easily recognizable due to its bark, which peels off in large, loose strips. It commonly has a narrow, oval crown and grows to a height of eighty to one hundred feet or more. The leaves of Shagbark Hickory are glossy and dark green, one to two feet long. They are alternate, pinnately compound, usually with five toothed leaflets that turn bright shades of yellow in fall. The timber is heavy, hard, and tough, used to make implements requiring strength, including axes, axe-handles, and bows for native American Indians. The fruit are showy and roundish, and produce edible seeds. These high-value seeds are rich in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates, sweet and nourishing. They thus are important in the diets of many forest animals. They were a dietary staple of Native Americans, as described in William Bartram’s Travels of 1791.

Last Updated: June 27, 2019

Key Info

Scientific Name: Carya ovata (Mill.) K. Koch
Common Names: Shagbark Hickory
Family Name: Juglandaceae (Walnut Family)
Plant Type: Tree / Shrub
Uses: Shade tree
Light Requirement: Full sun, Partial/sunny, Partial/shady
Moisture Requirement: Dry, Medium, Moist well drained
Leaf Retention: Deciduous
Bloom Times: Apr, May
Flower Color: Yellowish green, inconspicuous
Special Characteristics: Good fall color, Tolerates shade, Long lived, Excellent timber, Tolerates Black Walnuts, Excellent wildlife food, Edible seeds

Additional Info

Habit: Tall, straight-trunked tree with oblong crown and tap root and spreading lateral roots; bark becomes very markedly shaggy on adult trees
Height: typically 60'-80' but can reach 120'
Spread: 25'-35'
Growth Rate: Slow
Soil Conditions: average to moist (but well drained); deep loam or clay loam
Leaves: Altnernate, pinnately compund with 5 (rarely 7) elliptic leaflets with toothed margins, 3-8 inches long, the terminal leaflet being the largest and the lower pair of leaves the smallest; the upper surface is deep yellow-green, the underside paler; excellent yellow fall color.
Flowers (or reproductive structures): Flowering is monoecious, with male flowers in 3-to 6-inch catkins drooping in groups of 3 and female flowers occurring in short greenish spikes of 2-3 flowers each at the tips of young shoots.
Fruit: Fruit is a sweet, edible nut within a husk 1.5 - 2", oval, 4-ribbed, green ripening to brown in the fall. Trees begin bearing fruit at around 40 years of age.
Natural Distribution: Shaded woods, stream banks,swamps, flood plains
USDA Hardiness Zone: 4 to 8
USDA Wetland Indicator Status in NC: FACU
Pollination: Wind
Wildlife Connections: Seeds provide food for many mammals (chipmunks, foxes, mice, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels) and large birds (turkeys, pheasants, crows, woodpeckers). The vast number of insects that feed on these trees (caterpillars of many butterflies and moths, beetles, weevils, leafhoppres) in turn draws a whole array of smaller, insect-feeding birds (flycatchers, vireos, chickadees, gnatcatchers, warblers, tanagers) (Illinoiswildflowers.info).
Cultural Notes: The nuts are relished by people as well as by animals. The wood is used to make high quality charcoal to smoke meats and for fuel wood; being very hard, it is commercially important for tool handles, furniture and flooring.
Downside: Difficult to transplant due to the tap root. The Hickory Bark Beetle can be a significant pest on this tree, as well as leaf spot, powdery mildew and crown gall, especially on otherwise-stressed individuals.
Propagation: By seed.
USDA/NRCS Plant Distribution Map: View Map at USDA.gov

Availability

Footer

contact us

facebook.com/curenursery
curenursery@earthlink.net
Office: (919) 542-6186

Appointments: (919) 885-8642

Who we are

Cure Nursery is a small nursery propagating and selling native plants for the Southeastern U.S. We are located near the town of Pittsboro, Chatham County, in central NC.

our hours

Cure Nursery operates by appointment only. Call us or email us to arrange a time to come out, or for delivery.

Copyright © 2021 Cure Nursery · All Rights Reserved · Resources · Website by Tomatillo Design