5. Carya laciniosa (F. Michx.) Loudon (shellbark hickory, kingnut)
Pl. 430 d–f; Map
1927
Plants trees to
40 m tall. Bark light gray, exfoliating from the trunk in long curly strips.
Twigs 4–6 mm thick, tan to dark brown, the terminal bud 15–24 mm long, tan or
more commonly appearing grayish because of the dense hairs, the bud scales
strongly overlapping, the bractlets around the axillary buds fused toward the
base. Leaves with the petiole and rachis sparsely hairy becoming glabrous with
age, with (5)7 or 9 leaflets. Leaflets 9–25 cm long, 4–11 cm wide, lanceolate
to oblanceolate, elliptic, or obovate, straight (appearing symmetrically
tapered), the margins coarsely toothed, glabrous or with scattered, evenly
spaced hairs, the upper surface glabrous or with scattered unbranched and
branched hairs, at least when young, also with occasional, small, circular,
yellow, peltate scales, the undersurface with scattered unbranched and branched
(the branches appearing fasciculate) hairs, also with scattered to dense,
smaller, circular (unlobed), reddish brown, peltate scales and often also with
scattered, larger yellow scales. Staminate catkins noticeably stalked. Fruits
4–6 cm long, 3.5–5.0 cm wide, globose to slightly ellipsoid, not or only
slightly flattened, smooth along the 4 sutures, the husk 5–12 mm thick,
splitting to the base, irregularly and minutely hairy. Nut flattened (oval in
cross-section), the shell 3–6 mm thick. Seed sweet. 2n=32. April–May.
Scattered widely
in the state but absent from much of the Ozark Division (eastern U.S. west to
Iowa, Kansas, and Texas; Canada). Bottomland forests, swamps, banks of streams
and rivers, and margins of oxbows and sloughs.
In Missouri, C.
laciniosa is known to hybridize occasionally with C. illinoinensis (C.
×nussbaumeri Sarg.). Kurz (2003) noted that this species has declined in
abundance as the bottomlands of Missouri have been cleared for agriculture and
other uses.