Finally got around to taking down a Hickory that snapped half way up during a bad summer storm. The area that snapped was still connected which made dropping it a bit sketchy but it ended up right where I wanted it to go. The wife and I then tag teamed limbing it,bucking it, and taking it to the splitter. This stuff was worse than any Elm Ive dealt with. I think its was a small Shagbark ( 16" where I cut it) but might be something else.
Doesnt look like shag to me but its definitely hickory. Seems average stringiness IME. Great job getting it down safely!
After I’m done splitting a big Hickory, I don’t want to see another one for a while. After burning Hickory for a while and cleaning out the stove twice as much I don’t want to burn it for a while.
The bark looked like a Shellbark but the nuts were too small from others Ive cut. IDK if they hybirdize easily like Oaks do.
Cant say ive seen a shellbark in person or if they even grow around here. Ive seen seemingly hybrids of pignut and shag.
The nuts dont look right at all for pignut though. I have shellbark, shag, and mockernut on the property for sure though.
Seems like itd be pretty rare if you did see one unless it was a random one their natural range is pretty small.
One of those small outliers is in my regular stomping ground. I’m going to need to brush up on shellbark. Quite possible that I’ve been seeing it in the woods and incorrectly think it’s shagbark.
Splits about like some fresh cottonwood, takes every bit as long as white oak to season... But once well-seasoned, the flames pour out of a fat split for hours and hours. I don't know if it burns especially hot, but it definitely burns for a long, long time.
The nuts are huge about golfball sized. The bark looks similar to shag but the strips are much smaller and less flaky.
Sounds like shellback. It looks like shagbark but not very shaggy, and it has the largest nuts of all the hickories. I've got mostly shellback on my property, with a few shagbark, bitternut, and pignut. Pignut and bitternut bark is quite different from shellbark and shagbark. Those are the only four hickories in lower Michigan, so I'd say it's got to be shellbark.
I opened up the tree id book. The leaflets vary also. Shellbark has leaflets of 7, shagbark is leaflets of 5. Pretty simple to tell them apart once the leaves are out.
The only problem, with forest trees at least, is that all the leaves are at the very top! So get our your binoculars or fire up your drone if you want to count the leaves 100 feet up.
