Red hickory

Leaves

Form

• 5–7 leaflets on a central stalk
• Tip narrow-pointed
• Base wedge-shaped
• Main veins on lower surface hairy

Length

• Leaf and central stalk 15–25 cm

Colour

• Upper surface dark yellowish-green
• Lower surface paler

Margin

• Finely toothed
• Usually hairless on mature leaves
• Hairs, if present, not in tufts

Buds

Form

• Terminal bud present
• Variable in shape
• Somewhat pointed
• Outer scales shed in early autumn
• Remaining terminal bud stout, densely hairy
• Lateral buds smaller, broad, blunt-tipped

Length

• Terminal bud 6–9 mm

Twigs

Form

• Slender
• Often with long ridges
• Shiny, hairless

Colour

• Grey to reddish-brown

Flowers

Form

• Pollen flowers in 3-branched, drooping catkins
• Seed flowers in small erect terminal clusters (spikes)

Structure

• Monoecious

Fruits

Form

• Somewhat pear-shaped
• In small clusters
• Husk thin, smooth, glossy
• Friable, 4-ridged
• Splitting readily from top to base
• Nut slightly flattened, shell moderately thick
• Kernel bitter, not edible

Length

• Fruit 25–50 mm
• Nut 20–25 mm

Structure

• Nut

Bark

Form

• Thin, becoming scaly and shallowly fissured with narrow intersecting ridges

Colour

• Grey

Size

Height

• To 20 m

Diameter

• To 50 cm

Maximum age

• 200 years

Tree form

Forest-grown

Trunk

• Often branch-free with little taper

Crown

• Irregularly narrow, with short crooked branches
• Branch tips and lower branchlets often bending downward
• Longest, heaviest branches often near the top

Habitat

Site

• Well-drained sites (an upland species)

Light tolerance

• Intolerant of shade

Associated species

• Other broadleaf trees

Range

Rare in Canada; scattered locations in southern Ontario