Plant · P-540

Shellbark Hickory

Carya laciniosa

Shellbark hickory is a large bottomland tree that produces the biggest nut of any hickory - sweet and fine-flavoured, though the shell is thick and hard enough that a selected thin-shelled variety is worth seeking out over a wild seedling. Unlike most hickories it actually wants wet feet, thriving on moist to occasionally flooded floodplain ground rather than being limited by it, and it needs hot summers to set a good crop. Bearing is slow to start, but once established the tree also yields a maple-like syrup from its spring sap and a tough, flexible wood used for tool handles and furniture.