FAMILY: JUGLANDACEAE
ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: bitter pecan
LEAVES: deciduous, alternate, odd-pinnately compound commonly with 9 or 11 (range 7-17) falcate (sickle-shaped), lanceolate leaflets
FLOWER: imperfect (unisexual), plants monoecious; male flowers in green pendant catkins born at the summit of the previous year’s twig or base of current year’s growth; female flowers in few-flowered stalks terminal on developing shoots of the season; flowering in early spring
FRUIT: nut 1-1.5” long, distinctly flattened, with thin husks; kernel bitter
TWIGS: slender, ranging in color from brown to black, surface tomentose, glabrous with age; leaf scars heart-shaped with many vascular bundle scars
BARK: light gray to brownish-gray, loose shaggy plates on older trees
FORM: medium-sized tree, grows faster than Carya illinoinensis (sweet pecan)
HABITAT: wetter sites in bottomland hardwood forests
WETLAND DESIGNATION: Obligate Wetland (OBL): Almost always occurs in wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region
RANGE: Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains [USGS Range MAP]
USES: limited commercial uses for wood, including tool handles, flooring, wheel spokes, ladder rungs
WILDLIFE: wood ducks and possibly squirrels eat fruit
Best Recognition Features:
- restricted to wetter sites in floodplain forests
- gray shaggy-platy bark
- pinnately compound leaf with sickle-shaped lanceolate leaflets
- distinctly flattened nut
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