Juglans nigra

Native

Common

Rich, well-drained, lowland forests. Shade intolerant.

Late May to early June.

Green

50′ to 70′

The leaves are pinnately compound with 11 to 23 leaflets. The leaflets droop downward from the central axis (rachis) of the leaf. The terminal leaflet is either poorly formed or missing.

The twigs have buff pith. Cut through a twig at an angle and check the pith. If it consists of walls with hollow chambers, looking something like a honeycomb, then the tree is either black walnut or butternut.

Old leaf scars do not have a band of hairs along the upper margin.

The fruit is roughly spherical.

Butternut (Juglans cinerea) has dark brown pith in the twigs. The leaflets do not droop downward. The terminal leaflet is well developed. The underside of the leaflet is often densely hairy. The leaf scar has a band of hairs above it. The fruit is distinctly longer than wide and somewhat pointed, not spherical.

The champion black walnut in Minnesota is on private property in Oronoco, in Olmstead County. In 1981 it was measured at 89′ tall and 184″ in circumference (58½″ in diameter).