Solved: Shagbark Hickory

[swampwhiteoak]

This is for anyone who hasn't answered one right yet.  Foresters and the like not eligible.

[Tom]

I KNOW, I KNOW !!!!!!!!!!

[swampwhiteoak]

I KNOW, I KNOW !!!!!!!!!!

We gotta let other people play too, Tom.

[CHARLIE]

Hmmmm....must be a Southern type tree.  I'm gonna have to get my book out on this one.....  Leaves look big enough to be magnolia, but I don't think they have fruit. I'm gonna have to study this one some more..  

[swampwhiteoak]

Charlie,

This tree grows all over the east, not quite down to Florida but close, and including MI and WI.

Leaves are compound and alternate.  The fruit should be a big clue.

[L. Wakefield]

   Possibly a hickory- but the pic shows the leaves with quite a highlight and I'm not used to them looking that glossy.      lw

[CHARLIE]

I'm gonna have to agree with LW. I think she nailed it. When looking in my "Knowing Your Trees" book, the leaves and nut match up to Shellbark Hickory, Bigleaf Shagbark Hickory, Kingnut, Big Shellbark. This would be different names for the same tree.

A friend of mine gave me some dried hickory he had in his firewood pile. I mounted a chunk on my woodlathe, forgetting I had the speed to highm, and slung that sucker clear across the shop. Sure glad it didn't hit me. I slowed down the lathe and made several real purty woodworking mallets. That is some tough wood that hickory.  

[swampwhiteoak]

Score!
Glad someone is still interested.

This particular example is a shagbark hickory, Carya ovata.  Notice 5 leaflets instead of 7 that a shellbark (also known as kingnut or Carya lacinosa) would commonly have.