Pignut Hickory
Common Name: Pignut Hickory
Scientific Name: Carya glabra
Location: McNeilly Park
Size: 22” diameter at breast height
Location: Main Park-Greenhurst area
Size: 19” diameter at breast height
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Native to: Eastern and Southeastern U.S., commonly in the Appalachians.
This tree typically grows to: 60 feet tall and 35-40 feet wide at the crown.
This tree prefers these conditions: Dry hillsides and ridges, sun to part shade.
Special about this tree:
- A lovely forest canopy tree, with rich golden-yellow fall color.
- Produces strong wood as a timber crop.
- Nuts are ¾ to 1 ¼ inches in diameter, and early settlers found these would feed the pigs; hence the common name.
- Not often cultivated as the taproot can make tree difficult to transplant.
- Leaves are pinnately compound, arranged in alternate pattern on the stem.
- Each leaf typically with five leaflets, with the terminal leaflet the largest.
- Bark ages into rough diamond pattern, as opposed to the vertical, curling and peeling sheets of the Shagbark Hickory.