Bitter nut
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Bitter nut foliage ( Carya cordiformis ) |
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| Carya cordiformis | ||||||||||||
| ( Wangenh. ) K. Koch |
The bitter nut ( Carya cordiformis ) is a large deciduous tree from the hickory genus . The distribution area extends from eastern Canada through the eastern United States to Florida .
description
The bitter nut is a tree up to 50 meters high with a brownish bark that peels off in thin, shell-like scales. Young twigs are hairy rust brown and later become bald and shiny brown. The terminal buds are elongated, usually 10 to rarely 19 millimeters long, sulfur-yellow and covered with numerous glandular scales. The side, axillary buds are protected by two bracts. The leaves are 15 to 25 centimeters long and are composed of seven to nine, rarely five to 13 leaflets. The leaflets are 3 to 19 centimeters long and 1 to 7 centimeters wide, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, pointed with a pointed base and clearly serrated edge. The lateral leaflets have short to 1 millimeter long stems, the terminal leaflet stands on a 2 to 8 millimeter long stalk. The upper side of the leaf is medium green and glabrous, the underside light green and, in young leaves, hairy especially on the main nerve. The leaf spindle and the 3 to 7 centimeter long stem are also initially hairy. The autumn color of the leaves is golden yellow.
When fruits are nuts formed which are in groups of two or three. The nuts are pear-shaped to spherical, 2 to 3.5 centimeters in size and surrounded by a 2 to 3 millimeter thick fruit shell. When ripe, the fruit shell jumps up on four strips to just above the middle. The nuts are light brown, thin-shelled, finely grooved, rounded and pointed. The seeds taste bitter.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 32.
Distribution and location
The natural range is in the east of North America and extends from Ontario and Quebec in the east of Canada over the northeast of the USA to the southeast of the USA and to Texas. The bitter nut is probably the most common and most evenly distributed species of hickory in North America. It grows in mixed deciduous forests in floodplains and on river banks at heights of up to about 600 meters, the best stocks are in the fertile lowlands of the Ohio and its tributaries. The bitter nut grows in fresh to moist, slightly acidic to alkaline soils made of sand, gravel or gravel in sunny locations. The species is frost hardy.
Systematics
The bitter nut ( Carya cordiformis ) is a species from the genus of the hickory nuts ( Carya ) in the walnut family (Juglandaceae). It is assigned to the Apocarya section . It was first described in 1787 by Friedrich Adam Julius von Wangenheim as Juglans cordiformis ( Basionym ). The species was assigned to the genus Carya by Karl Heinrich Koch in 1869 .
Carya cordiformis forms hybrids with Carya illinoinensis , Carya ovata and Carya laciniosa .
use
The wood is widely used, but it is not very valuable. Lamp oil used to be made from the seeds . In Central Europe it is used in parks because of the beautiful autumn colors. The Fox used Carya cordiformis medicinally as a diuretic and laxative.
proof
literature
- Andreas Roloff , Andreas Bärtels: Flora of the woods. Purpose, properties and use. With a winter key from Bernd Schulz. 3rd, corrected edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5614-6 , p. 161.
- Schütt, Schuck, Stimm: Lexicon of tree and shrub species . Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-53-8 , pp. 99 .
- Steve Cafferty: Cosmos Atlas Trees of the World . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-10983-0 , p. 142 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ German name Bitternuss after Roloff et al .: Flora of the woods , Schütt et al .: Lexicon of tree and shrub species and Cafferty: Kosmos-Atlas trees of the world
- ↑ a b c Roloff et al .: Flora of the Woods , p. 161
- ↑ a b c Carya cordiformis. In: Flora of North America Vol. 3. www.eFloras.org, accessed January 22, 2012 (English).
- ↑ a b Carya cordiformis. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed January 22, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Schütt et al .: Lexicon of Tree and Shrub Species , p. 99
- ↑ Contribution to the German forest science suitable for wood, concerning the planting of North American wood species with application to German forests, quoted from Juglans cordiformis. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed January 22, 2012 .
- ↑ Karl Koch: Dendrology. Trees, bushes, and subshrubs which are cultivated outdoors in Central and Northern Europe , quoted from Carya cordiformis. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). United States Department of Agriculture, accessed January 22, 2012 .
Web links
- Russell H. Burns: Silvics of North America . Volume 2: Hardwoods. In: Agriculture Handbook . United States Government Printing, Oxford 1991, ISBN 978-0-16-029260-6 ( online ).