North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

What's the zone hardiness of Shellbark Hickories?

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Dr. Lucky Pittman
<lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu> wrote:
> Betsy,
> Mockernut(C.tomentosa) and some Pignut(C.glabra) hickories are edible - and
> quite tasty; mockernuts have a strong hickory flavor, rivaling black walnut
> in flavor intensity.
> Problem with them is that the thickness of the shell and the prominent
> ridges of the internal shell structure tends to trap the kernel, precluding
> you being able to extract much more than tiny little kernel fragments.
> There are occasional trees, however, if you'll sample the nuts, that do
> crack out reasonably well - but I've never come across a mockernut that
> cracks out as well as even the poorest shagbark.
> I've got one tree on the farm here that I'd once thought was a hybrid
> between shagbark and mockernut - but is probably C.ovalis, red hickory -
> cracks out better than some poorer-quality shagbarks.
>
> Lucky