North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 11:13 AM 6/29/2005, Topgun wrote:
> Does the Butternut tree require 2 varieties for pollination?

You know, I'm not sure.
I've got a number of butternut seedlings - some of which are quite likely 
to be hybrids, as some of the seednuts came from a friend who has quite a 
collection of butternut, heartnut, Carpathian, and Japanese walnut 
selections, in addition to black walnut in his plantings.
True butternut and Japanese walnut/heartnut cross-pollenate readily.  I 
suppose that if bloom periods overlap/coincide, Carpathian &/or black could 
also cross-pollenate, but I'm only aware of a couple of butternutXblack 
walnut hybrids, and a single buartXblack cross, so it may be that their 
bloom periods are not compatible for hybridization to occur frequently 
without some human intervention.

One of my butternut seedlings, grown from seednuts from GA produced catkins 
for the first time this year, but no nutlet flowers, so no nuts yet.  These 
'Southern' nuts were quite different from the 'northern' butternuts I was 
more accustomed to seeing - a smaller, more rounded, egg-shaped nut, with 
less prominent external ridges/veins on the shell itself, but internal nut 
structure and characteristics of the seedling are undoubtedly 'butternut'.

Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY