Black Walnut
Common Name: Black walnut
Scientific Name: Juglans nigra
Location: McNeilly Park
Size: 32” diameter at breast height
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Native to: Eastern and Southeastern U.S.
This tree typically grows to: 75 feet tall and wide.
This tree prefers these conditions: Open slopes and bottomlands, woodland edges, in full sun with medium moisture.
Special about this tree:
- An open, spreading shade tree.
- Foliage is compound leaves, each with 15-23 leaflets
- The large, sturdy trunk produces beautiful hardwood, but the tree is slow-growing.
- Nuts are encased in rough outer shells that turn from green to brown to black in fall. The nut meats are hard to remove from the shell, but are edible.
- Bark is rough, dark and deeply furrowed in diamond patterns.
- Roots produce chemicals that are toxic to many other plants, a means the tree has to keep competitors away.