Juglans cinerea
Common name:
Butternut
Pronunciation:
JU-glanz sin-ER-ee-a
Family:
Juglandaceae
Genus:
Type:
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon:
No
- Broadleaf deciduous tree, it may reach 100 ft (30 m) in the forest, but generally attains a height of 40-60 ft (12-18 m) with horizontal, spreading, heavy branches, to a width of 30-50 ft (9-15 m), often with an oval crown and a short forked trunk. Bark gray, smooth until old age, becomes rugged with deep cracks and broad scaly ridges. Leaves alternate, pinnately compound, 25-50 cm long, with 11-19 leaflets, each 5-12 cm long and 2-6 cm wide, oblong-lanceolate, tip acuminate, base rounded, margin appressed-serrate, dark green and pubescent above, pubescent and glandular below; petiole and rachis covered with sticky hairs. Male flowers in bright green catkins 5-12 cm long; female flowers in 5-8 flowered spikes on the end of twigs, erect, bright red stigmas. Fruit oblong, tapered, 4-10 cm long, covered with sticky hairs; nut oblong, brown-black, with rough, sharp sometimes broken ridges. Seeds are edible, sweet, mild-flavored but oily, and become rancid rather quickly.
- Sun Grows rapidly in fertile, well-drained soil; will grow slowly on alkaline, drier soil. The most serious disease of Juglans cinerea is butternut decline or butternut canker, this fungal disease has all but eliminated butternut from some southern states.
- Hardy to USDA Zone 3 Native to eastern North America, from New Brunswick to Georgia and west to the Dakotas and Arkansas.
- cinerea: gray, the bark.
Click image to enlarge
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plant habit
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leaves
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leaf
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leaflets
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leaflet, upper surface and margin
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leaflets, underside
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female flower cluster
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developing fruit and leaves
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nut (fruit) with leaflet
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trunk, bark
