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Juglans nigra
The tree has large, pinnately compound leaves, 12 to 24 inches long with 15 to 23 leaflets. The leaf stems are covered with fine hairs, but are smoother than butternut. The leaflets are 2-1/2 to 3 inches long, yellowish green in color, tapering at the end and toothed along the margin. The twigs are brownish, stout, blunt and with prominent leaf scars. The pith is cream colored and chambered, dividing into thin plates or segments. The fruit is a large, rounded, brownish black nut with a hard, thick, finely ridged shell enclosing a rich, oily kernel. The kernel is edible and highly nutritious. The nut is enclosed in a solid, non-splitting husk, and is borne on the tree singly or in pairs. The thick bark is dark brown in color and divided by deep fissures into rounded ridges. It has a chocolate brown under-color when broken from the tree.
Wooded slope of wildlife habitat yard.
It should be enough to have a tree with superb wood. Walnut has a double value, though, over a million dollars is paid each year for the nuts. The richly flavord nut meats are used by bakers, candy and ice cream makers. The uses go even further. The hard shells are used as ornaments, and pulverized, they ares used to drill oil wells, clean jet engines and to make activated carbon (a type of industrial charcoal used in a variety of ways). During World War II, gas mask filters were made from this activated carbon. Wildlife loves the walnut, too.
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