I've seen some recent forum comments about ID'ing different types hickories. In lower Michigan we have 5: shagbark, shellback, pignut, bitternut, and mockernut. I walked through the forest this afternoon in search of all five types. I have a lot of hickory trees on my property. Hundreds of them. But only a few dozen big ones. They grow very slowly in the forest, and can have 8-10 growth rings per inch. As firewood, all take a long time to season, are back-breaking heavy when green, dull your chain pretty quickly when cutting, and burn for a very long time if you are patient enough to let them season completely. I haven't noticed any one type being better firewood than any other. Bark is often not the best way to ID trees, but my trees are winter dormant, so it's all I've got right now. And a final note: I am not a hickory expert or an expert on much of anything. I am fairly confident of the shagbark / shellbark / pigbark IDs, but I could be wrong on the other ones. If you think I'm wrong, please correct me. I am 99% sure, however, that all of these are hickories of some sort. Shagbark Hickory (nothern variety) The most common hickory in Michigan. The bark peels off in long plates on mature trees. On younger trees, the bark has smaller plates that also peel quite a bit. (Younger shellback does not peel much at all.) Shellbark Hickory Similar to shagbark with less shag. Often confused with shagbark. The bark on mature trees has long plates, but they don't peel nearly as much as shagbark. Only the tips of the plates peel off a little and curve away from the trunk. Or entire plates (or shells?) peel off, but they don't curl as much as shagbark. Younger tree bark does not peel very much, but does have pointy ridges. Pignut Hickory (aka black hickory) Has a plated appearance somewhat similar to shellbark, but the bark is more firmly attached to the trunk, and it does not have deep ridges and layers like shellbark. Has more lower branches than shagbark and shellbark, both of which kill off their lower limbs when they get big. Bitternut Hickory This and mockernut are hard for me to ID based on bark alone. Mature bark looks sort of like elm. Younger bark looks sort of like pignut (I think?). I would not be able to ID this tree as a hickory based on bark alone, but I've seen the leaves and all of these are indeed hickories. The split trunk in the first photo is rare for any hickory and suggests that the tree suffered damage when young. There is a bitternut and a shellbark in the last photo. Mockernut Hickory (aka white hickory) I recognize mature bark by the subtle criss-crossing diamond pattern in the bark. The second to last photo shows both a mockernut in the front and a pignut in the rear, and the last photo shows a mockernut in the rear and shellbark up front. I hope you liked the hickories. I sure do.
Buttress roots, even on smaller trees, is good sign it's a hickory, as least in my moist lowland forest. A single straight trunk with no branches except at the very top is another good sign it's a hickory, especially if it's a forest tree. And they don't break in wind storms. Ever. Unless there's a tornado. And even then it's 50/50 if the tornado breaks the hickory, or the hickory breaks the tornado.
Thats what really pizzed me off about the one I just took down. It was a really straight hickory and the storm broke it about halfway up and none of the cherrys, red maples, elms around (even 2 dead standing) were damaged. Plenty of nuts from it on the ground still so Im going to heirloom it.
Mockernut bark is also sort of oak looking on the inside and thicker/softer than the other hickory's ime.
Great pics. Im not sure if I've ever seen a mockernut or shellbark in my area that im aware of. Sometimes younger trees have different bark chracteristics that can be confusing when trying to ID one. I had posted this thread a couple years ago. Whaddya think @Jonathon Y? Is this Mockernut Hickory?
That is crazy. I find that they sometimes drop big limbs in storms, but the limbs are always dead, since hickories kill off their lower branches once they aren't getting enough sunlight. Most forest trees do this to an extent (which is why you find knots in the trunk), but hickory seems especially eager to do so. I was half joking about them never breaking in storms. But at the edge of my forest -- where my yard meets the trees -- there are 3 or 4 large hickories, about 80-90' tall. We get a lot of wind storms where I live, and I get a good view of those hickories during storms. They bend a lot more than you'd think in the wind, but I've yet to see them drop live branches larger than twig size, much less break in half like the silver maples often do around here. We had such a bad wind storm last fall that a few big white oaks lost 6"+ thick branches from the crown. White oak is a strong tree as well, so I was surprised. But there wasn't damage to any hickories that I could see. Here's one of the storm damaged white oaks. The branch with leaves broke in the storm but hasn't yet made it to the ground. This oak lost almost half its crown during that one storm.
You know, I'm not sure if I've ever cut or burned mockernut. I don't usually cut down healthy hickories just for firewood. They are such slow growers that I leave them alone and happily burn tree service logs and dead ash / elm from the forest. I have cut some and burned shagbark, shellbark, and pignut, however, and I didn't notice shagbark burning any differently than the other two, even though it is supposedly in a class of its own per btu charts. Hickory is a tricky one to season since, like sappy pine, it will sort of burn even if not fully seasoned because the bark (mostly) and the wood (a little) has a very combustible oil. So if you toss a not fully seasoned hickory split into the stove, it will take right off as the surface oil burns off. And once the surface oil is gone, it will burn better than not-quite-seasoned white oak or elm, which straight up don't burn -- at least in my stoves. At least that's my experience.
I sometimes tried to heirloom trees right at the base of the stump of the one I cut down. My theory is that as the roots of the dead tree slowly rot, they will feed the new tree that takes its place. I actually did this with a hickory and it worked. Like walnut, a relative of hickory, hickory nuts sprout easily if the squirrels don't find them. The bad news is that my 6 year old hickory is about 4 feet tall with a 3/4" diameter trunk, so growing hickories from seed is an exercise in patience. It's a cute little tree, at least.
It's definitely a hickory, and definitely not shag / shell / pig. Either mockernut or bitternut. Based on both the bark and leaves, I would say bitternut. Again, I'm no expert, but I've spent a lot of time looking at the many hickories around here.
Here's another interesting photo from my walk yesterday: a young black maple next to a young black maple / sugar maple hybrid. Most black maple bark isn't this dark, so this one makes a nice contrast with the hybrid next to it. Sugar maple and black maple are very similar and they easily cross to form hybrids. I find more hybrids around here than pure sugar or black. What I assume are hybrids are trees with very light colored bark that has the black maple bark texture. Again, I'm no expert...
And a few of the oaks: white oak, swamp white oak, an exceptionally large red oak, and burr oak And finally, a hickory and basswood in love... This relationship will end badly for one or both of them.
Pin cherry and beech. I'm always tempted to cut the beech for firewood, but I've only got a few of them, so they get a pass.
Great pics, great thread! I've removed quite a few different types of hickories over the years, mainly pignut snd shagbark. We did a big hollow shagbark early last year and I rived the the entire bottom 4' of the hollow butt log into staves for axe and sledgehammer handles. They've been seasoning for a year now, some have warped a little but some are nice and straight and perfectly split with the grain of the wood. I have several axes and sledge heads to haft once they are seasoned enough, hopefully by mid year or next winter.
Very nice! It is exceptionally hard and strong wood as you well know. I'd like to see what you end up doing with them. I've been drying some hop hornbeam and hawthorn for hatchet and mini-sledge handles. I've never heard of anyone making tool handles with either of them, but they are nearly as hard and strong as hickory, and the hawthorn wood is very pretty. I know people make long bows from hop hornbeam, and I've seen knife handles from hawthorn, so they must both be workable and durable.
I used ironwood (hophornbeam) for a big cant hook I have, it has held up very well. The rings are so tight in that wood.
I know. You can hardly even see the rings to count them. And it doesn't seem to shrink or check much when it dries. Around here, they grow super slow in the shade of bigger trees. I've counted 50+ growth rings in trees that are only in the 4-5" diameter range. They can supposedly get up to 20" diameter, but I've never seen anything like that. I'd sure like to find a monster, however.
