Wood ID Please. Is this oak?
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Thanks, I think you're right. I did some research and I think it's bitternut hickory. It appears to have had a disease called "hickory wilt."
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
Black walnut and it is probably thousand cankers disease.
Pretty good firewood, not as good as oak but better than pine. Easy to split.
Pretty good firewood, not as good as oak but better than pine. Easy to split.
I say Hickory. Bark is wrong for Black Walnut. Black Walnut at that size bark would be thicker and more deeply furrowed.
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
Here is the acid test. Split some of it with a maul. Most species of hickory are very difficult to split.
Black walnut splits very easily.
Black walnut splits very easily.
If possible, a picture of a full leaf with all leaflets would help to confirm. Also, slice a twig longways and see if there's a chambered pith--easy tell for black walnut.
Images: black walnut chambered pith
Images: black walnut chambered pith
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Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
I just went for a walk on my driveway, and I got a close look at about 130 black walnuts. My driveway is 2/3 mile long.
Your tree is black walnut.
Your tree is black walnut.
Yes the chambered pith. Split a 1 inch twig as was said chambered it's Walnut, solid it's Hickory. I'm sticking with the Hickory.
CincyBurner
Minister of Fire
+1 for hickory
bark not right for walnut
As others mentioned, check the pith a twig or small branch (sliced longitudinally or tangentially). If chambered = Juglans
Slice bark with a pen knife. Walnut bark is soft with dark brown color throughout.
Check for bud scar on twigs: Walnut looks like a monkey face. http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=32
Leaves of walnut when crushed will smell of walnut.
bark not right for walnut
As others mentioned, check the pith a twig or small branch (sliced longitudinally or tangentially). If chambered = Juglans
Slice bark with a pen knife. Walnut bark is soft with dark brown color throughout.
Check for bud scar on twigs: Walnut looks like a monkey face. http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=32
Leaves of walnut when crushed will smell of walnut.
Medic21
Minister of Fire
I agree with the walnut. Center looks too dark for hickory.
Does the saw go through it like a hot knife through butter? Hickory is very hard and cuts slow compared to walnut or oak.
Does the saw go through it like a hot knife through butter? Hickory is very hard and cuts slow compared to walnut or oak.
I believe that's Hickory. They have 5-9 leaflets per leaf, Black Walnut may have many more, and they are jammed closer together. But as mentioned, cutting a twig would confirm it in a snap.
Hickories are in the Walnut Family, though..
Black Walnut:
![[Hearth.com] Wood ID Please. Is this oak?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/245/245344-0b0d5e1d1656ac9af7ebc741976399a2.jpg?hash=BBML4dVwax "[Hearth.com] Wood ID Please. Is this oak?")
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Center or heart wood on a hickory is five sides or star shaped
Black Walnut is round
I am sticking with Black walnut
Black Walnut is round
I am sticking with Black walnut
Yea, that tree is a Walnut (tree leaf picture). Bark shown must be off a fairly young part to be that smooth.
I believe that's Hickory. They have 5-9 leaflets per leaf, Black Walnut may have many more, and they are jammed closer together. But as mentioned, cutting a twig would confirm it in a snap.
Hickories are in the Walnut Family, though..
Black Walnut:
View attachment 245317
You've changed my mind! When I first looked at the pics, I really could have gone with either black walnut or a hickory. Here's what I see:
Bark looked a lot like black walnut to me. I googled some pictures of bitternut bark and that also fits.
Heartwood isn't as dark as it should be for black walnut in some pieces, but I wasn't sure if that was the result of rot/decay.
I wasn't focused on the leaf so much, but I think you're right. The leaf does look hickory-like in that the leaflets seem to get MUCH larger as it goes toward it's terminal end, but I wasn't sure if the leaf was broken at some point (missing leaflets that would make it possible to be a black walnut). I like your point about the lack closeness of leaflets--that really pushes it into the hickory area.
Another thought I had is that sometimes we get a leaf that doesn't belong to the tree, and that's why I wanted OP to post a picture of other leaves and the pith to be 100% sure.
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Not necessarily true....the tree pictured in my avatar is bitternut hickory....shagbark does have the features you mentioned.
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Why don't you crack a round open and post pictures of the inside of it on here which would help greatly in figuring out what this is?
Yeah, or maybe you can cut open a twig or post better leaf pics if it's close, at your neighbor's? The suspense is killing us.
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That's bitternut hickory, have a few on my property, a big one got struck by lightning and I had ready seasoned firewood.
Really?
I guess maybe a lightning strike could get the trunk hot enough to evaporate all the moisture. I once saw a bolt light up a utility pole about 100 yards from me. The strike glowed the pole, three times the width of the pole, for about a second...Did you meter it? How long after it got struck did you determine that you had dry wood?
