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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Carya ovata
The Shagbark Hickory is a magnificent specimen when mature. Its plated, slate-gray bark peels off in enormous flakes and adds beauty during winter. Fall color is a bright gold. The best time to view it is when walking underneath in the direct sun of the afternoon, which lights up the forest canopy to resemble molten gold. Shagbark Hickory also has one of the sweetest and most delicious nuts out of all our native trees and may be enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike. It is a keystone plant in supporting native wildlife during the fall and especially the winter months. Be sure to plant more than one for adequate pollination.
Hickory trees have a long history of use by man. Native Americans preferred the flavor its wood imparts to smoked meat and fish. Its wood is tough, dense, and shock-resistant and was preferred for making bows, especially in the north. Natives also employed the inner bark of Shagbark Hickory in preparing and flavoring a sugary syrup similar to maple syrup.
Excellent understory companion plants include red and yellow buckeyes, blackgum, sourwood, flowering dogwood, and sparkleberry. Taller companion trees include sweetgum, tuliptree, basswood, American beech, white oak, post oak, and Southern Red Oak.
Juglandaceae (Walnut)
Tall, upper-canopy deciduous hardwood tree with an open, round to oblong crown. Bark is smooth on juvenile specimens but ‘shaggy’ and flaking in large, outwardly curving plates on mature trees. Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, 8-14” long, and possessing 5-7 leaflets. Leaflets are obovate to lanceolate, with serrated margins. Fall color is a bright orange-gold. Flowers are monoecious. Male flowers are yellow-green catkins 2-3” long; females are short, in clusters at the ends of branches. Both appear in mid-spring. Fruit are nearly round, 1-2” in diameter, with a thick, 4-part husk that turns from green to brown and separates easily from the nuts at maturity. Nuts are 4-ribbed, with sweet meats, and mature in fall.
70-90 feet tall (occasionally 120), and up to 50 feet wide
Tall upper-canopy deciduous tree
Slow
Full sun increases fruit yield dramatically
Shagbark Hickory is deeply taprooted. Its taproot can grow up to three feet in its first year as a seedling. For this reason, it is important to sow nuts in the tree’s final desired location. Plants quickly become rootbound and trained to girdle in containers, negatively affecting the tree’s survivability in droughts. Transplants also fare poorly.
Assets include the brilliant golden glow of the foliage in fall, the flaking bark during winter, and the round nuts as they mature.
Shagbark Hickory makes a magnificent specimen and eventually becomes one of the dominant upper-canopy trees in eastern North American hardwood forests. Its manner of growth is thus similar to the American Beech. Shagbark Hickory fruits best when multiple, non-identical specimens are planted.
The most important value to wildlife of Shagbark Hickory is the fall nut crop. Nuts are consumed by a wide variety of animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, black bears, rabbits, white footed mice, gray and red foxes. Birds like the wild turkey, wood duck, nuthatch, and bobwhite quail also utilize them. The leaves are an important food for the larvae of the Hickory Horned Devil, Luna Moth, and Polyphemus Moth, each of which is exceptionally beautiful and interesting. The Hickory Horned Devil has an intricately spined caterpillar and stunning adult form. The Luna Moth is famous for its neon green hue as an adult, while the Polyphemus Moth is large and furry.
Wide-ranging across the eastern US from Florida west to Texas and north into Canada. Preferred habitats include well-drained woods, upland woods, and mature forests.
Sow nuts fresh in fall or stratify and sow in spring. Transplants have a poor success rate.
Also known as Shagbark Hickory,
Shellbark Hickory,
Upland Hickory,
Scalybark Hickory
Written by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
Photos courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden Plantfinder
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