Plant · P-539

Shagbark Hickory

Carya ovata

Shagbark Hickory is a slow-growing, long-lived eastern North American tree, easy to spot by the grey bark that peels away in long plate-like strips. It yields a sweet nut eaten raw, ground into meal, or worked into nut milk, and its sap can be tapped and boiled into syrup like a maple; the trade-off is patience, since a seed-grown tree can take decades before it bears well. Its dense, tough wood goes into tool handles and sporting goods and burns hot as firewood, and the nuts feed everything from squirrels and wild turkey to black bear in a good mast year. A deep taproot makes it hard to transplant, so it does best planted once and left where it stands.