Fall is an especially good time to find all kinds of nuts on the forest floor, in a picnic area in the park, or maybe even in your neighborhood or back yard. Let’s take a look and learn how to identify some of these wild nuts.
In technical botanical terms, all of these “nuts” are called the “fruit.” The fruit is defined as the seed and the package which holds the seed. So, for example, the acorn is the fruit of an oak tree, and inside is the nut which is a type of seed. If you use plant keys you will see those terms, but for general use, it is OK to call them all nuts.
It’s easy to overlook them, but look around the base of the trees and sometimes you will find piles of nuts – empty or maybe whole. All kinds of nuts are a very important food source for wildlife.
Acorns
Acorns are some of the most common types of nuts. Do you know what tree they come from? Acorns come from oak trees.
Oaks are found far and wide across New York State and the United States so you should be able to find oak trees and acorns in a park near you.
Acorns come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the type of oak they are from. They are a favorite food of squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other animals.
Red oak acorns are big (over an inch long) and roundish like a fat egg. They have very flat caps that cover only a small part of the acorn. The northern red oak (Quercus rubra) is the most common oak species in NY and its state parks.
Scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) acorns are less than an inch long and have shiny caps with tight scales. Scarlet oaks are common in Eastern New York, usually found on sandy or rocky soils. If you look closely at this picture, you can see a small round hole in the acorn: a sign that it was eaten by some type of insect.
The large size and heavy fringe of this acorn cap tell us that these are from bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), one of our less common oak species in New York. Sometimes you will only the acorns caps, as the nuts have been carried away by squirrels.
Walnuts
What nut looks like a green tennis ball? That would be the black walnut (Juglans nigra), from the tree of the same name. They have a really strong smell and can stain your clothes, so handle with care. Over time they turn brown and dry out.
Black walnuts can be eaten but it takes a lot of work to dry and husk them. They also make a beautiful natural dye.
The butternut tree (Juglans cinerea) is a closely related to black walnut and has very similar nuts. They start out bright green like the black walnut, but are shaped more like footballs rather than the tennis balls shape of black walnuts.
By early fall, the butternut’s nuts have dried up and lost their fuzzy husk and they look very much like the English walnuts you buy in the store.
Both black walnuts and butternuts are edible but it can be tough to find one that hasn’t already been snacked on by a squirrel.
Hickory Nuts
Hickories are another very important tree for wildlife including turkey, deer, chipmunk, squirrel, mice and others. Of the 20 hickory species found in North America, five species are native to New York State. A good key to identifying these is found here.
Pignut (Carya glabra), Mockernut (Carya tomentosa) and Bitternut (Carya cordiformis) hickory have thin husks like this.
There are two types of nuts: ones that keep their husk on as they mature or ripen (indehiscent) and those with husks that split completely and fall off the nut by the end of fall (dehiscent).
One has to look at the leaves and/or buds to properly identify these species. As its name suggests, Bitternut is one that is not palatable to either wildlife or people.
These are the thick husks of the Shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa), a tree that is rare in New York. The husks range from 1.5 inches to nearly 3 inches long, and the nuts inside would be pointed at both ends.
These husks were empty, but you can see how the cavity tapers to a point at each end. The more common Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) is very similar, but the nuts are rounded at the base and the husks do not exceed 2 inches long. Nuts from both of these trees are sweet and edible.
American Chestnuts
If you find one of these, consider yourself very lucky! This is the fruit and nut of the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata). Although a blight killed off the large trees, some sprouts persisted and some trees do get large enough to produce nuts like this.
These spikes are so sharp you can’t even pick them up with your bare hands, which keeps animals from eating the nut inside. Eventually the husks open up to release the nut in hopes that a new tree will grow.
Learn More
Want to learn more about nuts and tree fruits of all kinds? Check out GoBotany, an online tool for identifying plants in New England but includes most tree species found in NY state too; and the New York Flora Atlas.
A version of this essay by by Julie Lundgren of the NY Natural Heritage Program, first appeared in the New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog.
Illustrations, from above by Julie Lundgren, NYNHP except where noted otherwise: Oak leaves and acorns (courtesy State Parks); Red oak, scarlet oak, and bur oak acorn; Fresh black walnuts can get almost as big as a tennis ball. As they age and dry out, they get smaller like the one in the center; Butternuts; Hickory nuts can have thin or thick-walled husks like the two types shown here; Pig nut; Shellback Hickory nut; and American chestnuts.
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