Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Mockernut hickory is a medium-sized tree reaching 50 to 60 feet in height and 1 to 2 feet in diameter. Unlike most hickories, the mockernut has a broad, rounded crown. New sprouts can grow from stumps. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are pinnately compound, alternate, and deciduous. They grow between 6 and 12 inches in length with 5 to 9 fragrant leaflets, each growing up to 8 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide with long-tapered acute apices. The lowermost pair of the leaflet is ovate and much smaller than the others. The remaining leaves are obvate or broadly elliptical with the uppermost pair almost the same size as the terminal leaflet. Leaflet bases are rounded or broadly wedge-shaped. The margins are finely to coarsely serrate. Leaves are shiny yellowish-green on top with sparse pubescence. The underside is pale green with dense orange-brown pubescence. The leaves turn bright yellow in the fall. The rachis is stout, grooved, also covered with pubescence, and is fragrant when bruised. |
| Twigs: | The twigs are stout and reddish-brown to grayish-brown. The current season's growth is pubescent. The pith is homogeneous. |
| Bark: | The bark is gray with shallow and narrow ridges and furrows that form a diamond-like pattern. |
| Flowers: | The mockernut hickory is a monoecious species. The yellow-green male flowers are dropping catkins that hang in clusters of 3 from one stalk, 3 to 4 inches long. The Very small female flowers grow in clusters of 2 to 5 near the tip of the twig. |
| Fruit: | The fruit of the mockernut is a 1 to 2 inch long nut that is thick-shelled and round or pear-shaped. The nut is green at first, turning brown as it gets older. At maturity, the sides split apart so that there are four pieces of thick husk surrounding the seed. |
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Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List:
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