Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata)

Family: Juglandaceae | Edibility: Edible (3/5)

Towering canopy tree with distinctive shaggy peeling bark plates, producing the richest, most buttery wild nuts in North America.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Nuts/Seeds, Bark/Inner Bark, Sap/Syrup

Harvest Seasons: Fall, Late Summer, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Exceptionally sweet, rich, buttery pecan flavor with hints of maple and vanilla; bark makes a smoky-sweet syrup. — Nuts cracked with a heavy mallet and nut meats picked for wild pies and cookies; Whole cracked nuts boiled in water into rich white traditional hickory nut milk (Kanuchi); Fallen bark scales scrubbed, toasted, and boiled into fragrant hickory bark syrup

Habitat & North American Range

Rich upland slopes, limestone ridges, and bottomlands across eastern hardwood forests. (Zone 4, Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8)