Pecan? (Carya illinoinensis)

Hi Bill-minn, did you ever notice when hickory/pecan shed nuts the husk splits open and the clean nut falls to the ground? These nuts were picked up on the ground with husk intact so we can exclude hickory/pecan.

juglans cinerea, Butternut

I almost said that. :-)

lol. I liked the 'hint'.

Possibility is, however, that while it may be a pure butternut, it may also be a hybrid between our native J.cinerea and the introduced Japanese walnut, J.ailantifolia &/or its budsport, the heartnut, J.ailantifolia var. cordiformis.

I've got some Japanese walnut seedlings, grafted heartnuts, and presumed pure butternut seedlings growing here. I can't differentiate between the trees (I'm not a botanist), and the nuts of the Japanese walnuts look very much like many butternut nuts I've seen over the years.

There are named 'butternut' varieties that have been propagated for decades that have been shown, with the advent of DNA technology, to actually be hybrids of butternut with Japanese walnut/heartnut.

lpitmann8 makes many good points and I'm happy to hear from someone with first hand experience. My state lists Butternut on the Rare, Threatened & Endangered List. Especially around here they are few and far between. The solitary tree in my OP is growing on a nature preserve, am not saying it couldn't have been planted but I think it is unlikely. Hard to believe that Butternut was once common enough for cabinetry.

neat thread

Sometimes planted as a parktree here in northen Europe, since it's one of the hardiest walnuts. The big leaves gives them an almost tropical look and wildlife had no problem figuring out that the nuts are edible

No nuts this year on the two bearing-age seedling trees that I'm reasonably convinced are true butternuts (seednuts came from a GW member in north GA)... but no evidence of butternut blight/canker on them, so I can't swear that they are not hybrids.

But... Japanese walnut seedlings, planted about the same time (20 years ago) produced a decent crop this year... very little nut kernel inside those shells, and difficult to extract anything resembling intact halves/quarters.

I have one large open-pollenated seedling of 'Bountiful' butternut... which is now know to be a butternutXJapanese walnut hybrid... germinated in 1998... has yet to produce a nut... but did at least make some catkins this spring, so... maybe in the next year or two...

By the look of the nut shell they appear to be pure butternut (very fine sharp ridges). There must be more than one tree around to get good germination.

Foliage and branching of tree shown here looks like butternut also, the Asian walnuts produce low-forking (at least when growing in the open) crowns with stout twigs and jumbo leaves, quite long and with extra large leaflets - the crown section shot above shows no sign of their influence. With the hybrid butternuts probably having been selected as superior pure butternut variants because of the effect of the Asian walnut parent on their morphology.

The heartnut produces big fat kernels so poorly filled nuts are not a general characteristic of Japanese walnuts.

Don't know anything about it but perhaps the blackening of the outsides of the fruits of this example shows a certain level of infestation by the butternut disease.

The husk turns a black mess and stains your hands, they look normal and should be very sticky also an indication of pure butternut.

Same routine from same tree. Here is one of the few times that I use a refrigerator for seed. Husks have been removed, mix half & half with damp sand, put in coffee can, label lid and put in fridge. AFAIK nuts are safe from vermin there but no guarantees.

Next March/April they can be taken out and direct sown in pots like shown above. It is remarkable how much growth they put on in one season.

I like THIS youtube from somewhere in Appalachia. Notice all the ginger on the pristine forest floor. Notice narrator gives well thought out details of the tree's description and demise.

I have two seedlings that I am growing. I hope they survive my winter. They both grew to about 18".

This is a couple of mine from seed of local trees, they experience - 40 degrees at times. One had male catkins last spring but frost did them in. One is growing more upright and the other is spreading. Not the best pic.

Tho I've seen a number of them die, there's one butternut along a suburban street in Hagerstown, MD that I thought was a goner (it began looking sparse) about 20 yrs ago, but somehow has hung on and still alive, tho it still doesn't look good.