Nutmeg Hickory

I have started to be interested in this tree recently because it is so rare. Has anyone here tried growing it? There hasn't even been much written about it.

I thought I knew my hickories and I hadn't even heard of it. One source says that it's locally abundant near Selma, Alabama but not anywhere else. It's the sort of thing I'd grow as an interesting oddity. The nuts are so thick-shelled that wildlife leaves them alone, and I suppose that that explains the common name. I wonder how one would get a nut to germinate...

Mark., learning something new

I tried, but Zone 5 was not accomodating. Doesn't it like/tolerate wet sites?

I think the nuts look sort of like bird eggs. I did find the native range map and it is very spotty. It may be on my list for next year. http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/carya/myristicformis.htm

"Apparently, it has bark extremely conducive to lichens" according to one online source. That's pretty interesting.

Down here, everything with rough-ish bark that gets enough sun is lichened (lichen being a symbiosis of fungus and alga, needs some light to do well... as do those little bromeliads one sees among the lichen, and those skinny but sometimes huge bromeliads called Spanish Moss). Seems like a tree that would fit right in here. Pecans do fine though I don't think they're properly native, and we get some other hickories though they're not abundant.

Mark.

Escambi.... You do happen to stumble on some interesting trees. I know several Hickorie too but never heard of this one. Had to go google it. It does has some pretty bark from this sight I found.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/maritime/Caryamy.htm

Saw one other sight call it a common name of Swamp Hickory. Is that right? I have heard the name Swamp Hickory before but never Nutmeg.

Wonder if anybody here from S.C. from around this area that could find ya a few seeds to try and germinate.

More info in the Flora of North America here:

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500319

Resin

I'm not afraid to post this rare plant's name: Carya myristiciformis.

Practice saying without spitting (or biting your tongue), or sing:

It's germane to explain that nutmeg hickory seed falls mainly in the flood or Coastal plain.

Now there's a thread-killer (can you tell I've been watching TCM again?).

But not in Spain . . .

;-)

You've been watching Traditional Chinese Medicine??

Twentieth Century Matinees.

Actually, TCM is Turner Classic Movies, à la My Fair Lady (aka Pygmalion) and others, and when it's pouring down rain or frigid cold out, that's one respite.

I find myself looking at the plants in the background, though...