Butternut Tree Identification

Geography and Size

• The butternut is a deciduous tree, found growing from southern Maine into the northern portion of the Deep South and westward to states such as Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. Butternut typically grows in moist valleys and on slopes, with a presence in the hardwood forests of its range. Butternut grows to between 40 and 60 feet tall, with a spread between 30 and 50 feet. The trunk of a butternut thickens to between 1 to 2 feet wide. The upper branches grow in an upright manner and the main branches are usually stout, notes the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees: Eastern Region."

Foliage

• The foliage of the butternut is among the last to emerge in spring, often leaving the butternut tree bare while other trees around it have a full compliment of leaves. Butternut leaves are compound, made up of a central axis stem termed a rachis. The rachis possesses a covering of minute, sticky hairs and can be as long as 20 inches. Numerous leaflets, normally from 11 to 17 according to the Missouri Botanical Garden, attach to the rachis via short, hairy stalks. Shaped like pointed lances, the leaflets are up to 4 ½ inches long and have serrated edges. They are shades of green, turning yellowish or brown in autumn.

Butternuts

• The inconspicuous flowers of the butternut (male and female flowers) are on the same tree) result in an oblong nut. The nuts develop in clusters, with from three to five butternuts in each cluster. The nuts, encased in a thick, hairy greenish husk, have a protective shell about them. The shell is thick, features eight separate ridges and is light brown. The seeds on the interior are very oily, but tasty. They become rancid quickly after they ripen. The husks produce a staining yellow-brown dye that will get all over your hands if you handle them.

More Identifiable Characteristics

• The wood of butternut exhibits a uniform pink-tan color when split. The butternut, in times of late summer droughts, often drops its leaves to conserve water, leaving the ground below littered with leaflets and rachises. Butternut bark is light gray. The bark of the older trees have flat-topped ridges, notes the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, as opposed to the smooth bark on younger butternut specimens.