Mockernut Hickory, A Common Tree in North America

The Silviculture of Mockernut Hickory

The climate where mockernut hickory grows is usually humid. Within its range the mean annual precipitation measures from 35 inches in the north to 80 in. in the south. During the growing season (April through September), annual precipitation varies from 20 to 35 inches. About 80 in. of annual snowfall is common in the northern part of the range, but it seldom snows in the southern portion.

The Images of Mockernut Hickory

Forestryimages.org provides several images of parts of mockernut hickory. The tree is a hardwood and the lineal taxonomy is Magnoliopsida > Juglandales > Juglandaceae > Carya tomentosa. Mockernut hickory is also sometimes called mockernut, white hickory, whiteheart hickory, hognut, and bullnut.

The Range of Mockernut Hickory

Mockernut hickory, a true hickory, grows from Massachusetts and New York west to southern Ontario, southern Michigan, and northern Illinois; then to southeastern Iowa, Missouri, and eastern Kansas, south to eastern Texas and east to northern Florida. This species is not present in New Hampshire and Vermont as previously mapped by Little. Mockernut hickory is most abundant southward through Virginia, North Carolina and Florida where it is the most common of the hickories. It is also abundant in the lower Mississippi Valley and grows largest in the lower Ohio River Basin and in Missouri and Arkansas.

Mockernut Hickory at Virginia Tech

Leaf: Alternate, pinnately compound, 9 to 14 inches long, with 7 to 9 serrate, lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate leaflets, rachis is stout and very pubescent, green above and paler below.

Twig: Stout and pubescent, the 3-lobed leaf scars are best described as a "monkey face"; terminal bud is very large, broadly ovate (Hersey kiss-shaped), darker outer scales are deciduous in the fall, revealing a silky, nearly white bud.

Fire Effects on Mockernut Hickory

Winter burning in a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stand in the lower Atlantic Coastal Plain top-killed all mockernut hickory up to 4 inches (10 cm) d.b.h.