MOCKERNUT; BIG BUD HICKORY (llicoria alba, Britt.). 50 to 80 feet; rarely 100 feet. Tall trunk with round, spreading, or narrow head of stiff upright, and lower, drooping branches. Twigs with thick, pale, hairy coating; brownish, with showy pale lenticels, and big terminal winter buds, ovate, 4 to i inch long, with leathery, keeled scales. Bark gray, thick, with shallow, irregular fissures, and scaly ridges. Wood heavy, hard, tough, flexible, dark brown, close-grained, used for the same purposes as shellbark hickory wood. Leaves alternate, 8 to 12 inches long, of 5 to 7 leaflets, saw-toothed, taper pointed, downy, pale or orange beneath, yellow-green, lustrous above, turning russet in fall; fragrant. Flowers May, in cat
kins and terminal spikes, downy, red-tipped. Fruit a globular, thick-shelled, ridged nut, in husk that parts down to middle or lower, often 4 inches long, reddish, strong-scented. Dist.: Southern Ontario to northern Florida; west to Kansas and Texas. Widely distributed in the South. Rare north of the Ohio River. Abundant on sandy lowlands along southern shores and deltas.