SHELLBARK; BOTTOM SHELLBARK (Hicoria laoiniosa, Sarg.) 100 to 120 feet. Narrow-headed, tall tree, with short, small branches and orange twigs, set with very large winter buds, in silky scales. Bark shaggy, thick, gray, shedding in thick plates that persist. Wood not distinguished from that of the little shagbark. Leaves 1.5 to 22 inches long, of 5 to 9 lance-shaped leaflets, lustrous, dark green, lined with pale yellow-green, or bronzy fuzz; stalks stout, broad at base, re curved and persistent after leaflets fall, — a noticeable winter characteristic of this species. Flowers velvety, staminate
catkins 5 to 8 inches long, reddish. Fruit a large nut, angled, 11 to ti inches long, flattened, in woody, 4-valved, orange brown, pubescent husk, that parts but halfway down. Dist.: Rich bottom land, New York to Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma; south Tennessee and Arkansas. Fine nut and park tree.