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DECIDUOUS-- May grow to 100 feet in height. Resembles a pecan tree.
LEAVES: Alternate- Compound leaf (with a terminal leaflet) is 8-12” long having 3-7 leaflets. Leafles are serrated along edge.
BARK: Gray, deeply furrowed between narrow, interlacing ridges, faintly tinged in yellow.
FLOWER: Male flowers are 2-3” drooping catkins, 3 hanging from a stalk. Female flowers are short, found in clusters at the end of the branches. Appear in April –May.
FRUIT: Nut ripens in Sept.- Oct. Nut is flattened, about 1-1/4“ long and is thick walled. Seed usually bitter. Nut inside shaped like snout of a pig, hence, name of tree.
Grows among oaks, bottomland hardwoods, upland slopes and along ridges. Likes moist rich soils.
Wood is hard and dense. It was used to make wooden wheels since it has bending qualities and can withstand compression and shock better than most woods. Early settlers boiled the bark in vinegar to extract a black dye. Nuts are important in diet of squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, black bears, foxes, rabbits, birds, smaller rodents and deer.
An example of this tree is growing next to the bench near the parking lot as you join the sidewalk to the Nature Center.
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