Alternate name: Bitter Pecan

Family: Juglandaceae, Walnut view all from this family

Description Large tree with tall straight trunk, slender upright branches, narrow crown, and bitter inedible nuts.
Height: 70-100' (21-30 m).
Diameter: 1 1/2-2 1/2' (0.5-0.8 m).
Leaves: pinnately compound; 9-15" (23-38 cm) long, with dark red, hairy axis. Usually 9-13 leaflets 2-5" (5-13 cm) long; lance-shaped; long-pointed at tip; slightly curved; finely saw-toothed; mainly stalkless. Dark green and hairless above, often hairy beneath.
Bark: light brown; thin, fissured into long platelike red-tinged scales.
Twigs: brown; slender, becoming hairless.
Flowers: tiny; greenish; in early spring before leaves. Male, with 6-7 stamens, many in slender drooping catkins, 3 hanging from 1 stalk. Female, 2-10 flowers at tip of same twig.
Fruit: 1-1 1/2" (2.5-4 cm) long; broadly elliptical; much flattened; 4-winged; becoming dark brown; with thin husk splitting to middle; 4 or fewer in cluster. Nut flattened, 4-angled, thin-shelled, with bitter seed.

Habitat Low wet flatlands, especially clay and flats, often submerged, in flood plains and swamps; bottomland hardwood forests.

Range SE. Virginia south to central Florida, west to E. Texas, and north to S. Illinois; to 400' (122 m).

Discussion Both the common and scientific names describe this hickory occupying wettest soils. The bitter nuts are consumed by ducks and other wildlife. Water Hickory is the tallest of all hickories; the national champion measures 150' (45.7 m).