{"id":19982,"date":"2022-09-01T16:01:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T20:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=19982"},"modified":"2025-08-01T09:48:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T13:48:18","slug":"intro-to-trees-of-indiana-mockernut-hickory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/intro-to-trees-of-indiana-mockernut-hickory\/","title":{"rendered":"Intro to Trees of Indiana: Mockernut Hickory"},"content":{"rendered":"

The classic and trusted book “Fifty Common Trees of Indiana” by T.E. Shaw was\u00a0published in 1956 as a user-friendly guide to local species.\u00a0\u00a0Nearly 70 years later, the publication has\u00a0been updated through a joint effort by the Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources,\u00a0Indiana 4-H<\/a>, and\u00a0the\u00a0Indiana Department of Natural Resources<\/a>, and reintroduced as “An Introduction to Trees of Indiana.”<\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/a>The\u00a0full publication<\/a>\u00a0is available for download for $7 in the Purdue Extension Education Store. The field guide helps identify common Indiana woodlot trees.<\/p>\n

Each week, the Intro to Trees of Indiana web series will offer a sneak peek at one species from the book, paired with an ID That Tree video from Purdue Extension forester\u00a0Lenny Farlee<\/a>\u00a0to help visualize each species as it stands in the woods.\u00a0Threats to species\u00a0health\u00a0as well as\u00a0also\u00a0insight into the wood provided by the species, will be provided\u00a0through additional resources as well as the\u00a0Hardwoods of the Central Midwest<\/a>\u00a0exhibit of the Purdue Arboretum, if available.<\/p>\n

This week, we introduce the White hickory or\u00a0Carya tomentosa<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This tree, also known as mockernut hickory, has stout twigs like those of\u00a0shagbark hickory<\/a>\u00a0and large terminal buds, but its bark is not shaggy. Instead, mockernut hickory features thick, interlacing bark ridges that is often silvery on top. Its leaves are made up of seven to nine leaflets that are hairy beneath, instead of five. The bud is very rounded, resembling a scoop of ice cream. The bud, leaf stems and twigs may have hair on them. The nuts of the mockernut hickory are smooth and round with mild ridges with four seams, which break open in the fall. The leaves produce a golden-yellow color in the fall.<\/p>\n

Mockernut hickories grow to a mature height of 50-60 feet tall. They grow mostly in high dry ridges and other well-drained soil locations from New Hampshire west to Iowa and south to Texas and east to northern Florida except for the flood plain of the Mississippi Rive from Memphis south.<\/p>\n