SHAGBARK HICKORY (carya ovata)
This type of hickory tree is named after its easily-identifiable “shaggy” bark, which in mature trees, peels off in long strips. It is a shade-tolerant tree that typically grows in later stages of forest succession– replacing species like the honey locust, black walnut, bur oak, or black cherry. Similar to the white ash, its seedlings can persist for years under a closed canopy, then grow rapidly once a gap opens. It grows not in thickets, but scattered throughout the forest alongside other species like oakes, pines, and maples, which can also be found along this path.
Ecological Relationships: The shagbark hickory grows not in thickets, but scattered through the forest alongside other species like oaks, pines, and maples, which can also be found along this path. Its nuts are consumed by wood ducks, wild turkey, and bobwhites, as well as mammals like mice, chipmunks, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, and black bears. Furthermore, big brown, little brown, silver-haired, and hoary bats all roost in this tree’s branches.
Ecological Threats: Hickory bark beetles and canker rot fungus.