Leaf: Pinnately compound; Usually 7 broadly lance-shaped leaflets; finely saw-toothed; nearly stalkless. Shiny dark green above, pale and covered with soft hairs beneath.
Flower: Tiny; greenish; in early spring before leaves. Male, with 3-10 stamens, many in slender drooping catkins, 3 hanging from 1 stalk. 2-5 female flowers at tip of same twig.
Fruit: Nearly round; flattened; becoming light to dark rown; with thick husk splitting to base. Hickory nut nearly round, thick-shelled, with edible seed.
Twig: Pale orange; stout; hairy, ending in large brown hairy buds.
Bark: Light gray; becoming rough and shaggy, separating into long narrow strips loosely attached.
Form: Large tree with straight trunk, narrow rounded crown large leaves, and the largest hickory nuts.
This uncommon species is distinguished from other hickories by the large leaves, large nuts, and orange twigs; and from Shagbark Hickory by the larger number of leaflets and the thick-shelled nuts. The Latin species name, meaning "with flaps or folds," refers to the shaggy bark.
SE Iowa east to Ohio and SW Pennsylvania, south to Tennessee, and west to NE oklahoma; also local to extreme S Ontario, New York, N Georgia, and Mississippi.
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/vine/toxdiv/index.html
Photographed outside Fairview, Illinois.
Copyright Jamie Neville and Radine Kellogg
Spoon River Valley HS Dist#4
London Mills, IL 61544
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees