Seeds and cuttings I collect around North Carolina, what they turned out to be, and how to grow them for a NC Piedmont native-plant nursery.
Carya tomentosa · Juglandaceae
The most abundant hickory in the Piedmont. Big tan buds, fuzzy leaves, thick-husked sweet nuts, plus how to separate it from pignut, shagbark and bitternut.
Community photos of Carya tomentosa to study before I head out: leaf, flower or bract, ripe fruit, bark, whole plant.
Native and common in every NC county; the single most abundant hickory across the Piedmont uplands
Best bet: Husk the nuts, run a float test, then cold-moist stratify cleaned nuts 90–120 days at 33–40°F in barely-moist 1:1 sand and peat in a vented bag, and sow in spring. Simpler and more reliable: fall-sow outdoors immediately into deep tree pots or root-trainers, or straight in place, 3/4–1.5 in deep, capped with 1/4-in hardware cloth against rodents. Winter does the stratifying and they germinate the first spring
A Piedmont-native upland tree that thrives in heavy clay and is drought-tolerant once established, with zone 7b/8a dead center of its range. Two real cautions: the deep taproot forms fast and makes bare-root transplanting nearly impossible, so grow in tall root-pruning containers or direct-sow to the final position; and it is slow-growing and eventually large at 50–80 ft, so site it with room. No serious pest, disease or invasiveness concerns.
Each look-alike with the one character that settles it. Tap a photo to zoom.
Twigs and leaf undersides essentially hairless, usually 5 leaflets, small bud, and a thin husk that splits only partway and clings to the pear-shaped nut. Mockernut has a fuzzy underside, a fat tan bud, and a thick husk splitting to the base
Mature bark exfoliates in long shaggy plates curling at both ends, where mockernut keeps tight ridges. Usually 5 leaflets with tufts of hair on the marginal teeth, and the sweetest nut of the group
Bright sulfur-yellow, flattened, scurfy terminal bud, which is unmistakable next to mockernut's plump tan one. Thin four-winged husk and a genuinely bitter, inedible kernel
Leaf underside silvery with tiny rusty peltate scales under a hand lens, on dry sandy sites, where mockernut has soft velvety orange-brown pubescence
Hickories are the second signature of a Piedmont oak-hickory ridge; the oaks are the first. In late September and October what I'm watching for is a tall, straight-trunked tree with hard 4-ribbed husks littering the trail underneath it, and a canopy going clear golden-yellow as fall peaks in October. Walk the dry-to-mesic upland slopes and old-field woods. Hickories dislike wet bottoms. If a low branch is in reach, the bud settles it fastest: mockernut's is a plump tan thumb about 0.5–1 cm, bitternut's is neon sulfur-yellow, pignut's is small and tight.
Worth eating: shagbark first, then mockernut, sweet but thick-shelled. Bitternut is bitter and most pignut is astringent and variable, so collect those only for the trees, not the food.
Collect the day the nuts drop, late Sep–Oct, before squirrels and hickory nut weevils clear the ground. Husk them and run a float test. Sound viable nuts sink, and floaters are weevil-hollowed or immature, so those go in the compost. Timing matters here: green husks still on the tree in early September are usually immature and low-viability, so wait for browning or splitting husks, or fresh drop.
For grow-out, remember hickories send down a deep taproot immediately and resent bare-root transplanting. Two routes. Cold-moist stratify cleaned nuts 90–120 days at 33–40°F in barely-moist sand and peat, then sow in spring. Or simpler and more reliable, fall-sow immediately, 3/4–1.5 in deep into tall root-trainers or straight into the final spot, capped with 1/4-in hardware cloth against rodents, and let winter handle the stratifying. Germination comes the first spring, early growth is slow, and a nursery-worthy sapling takes a couple of seasons. Site the eventual 50–80 ft tree with room to spread.
Around Roxboro and Person County, work the upland ridges at Mayo Lake and Hyco Lake game lands. Farther south, Duke Forest, Eno River State Park, and Uwharrie National Forest all hold classic oak-hickory ridgelines where all four species grow side by side, which is the easiest way to learn the bud and bark contrasts in a single walk.