Is Nutmeg Hickory Deciduous or Evergreen?

Climate

• Nutmeg hickories grow naturally along stream banks and on higher bottom lands from mountains near Monterrey, Mexico, north through Texas and Arkansas to the North and South Carolina coast. They like moist loam, silt or clay soils that are moderately well drained. Summers are dry and warm in most of their natural range; they get from 40 to 55 inches of a rain annually with 20 or more inches in the growing season. You can grow a nutmeg hickory in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 9.

Buds, Shoots and Leaves

• Plump spring buds, about 1/5-inch long, are gold, covered with silver, shield-shaped scales. The silver shoots that follow are sprinkled with gold scales, and they retain this color throughout the growing season. The distinctive leaves are dark green on top with silver scales on the bottom. The silver sheen of the leaf bottoms often changes to bronze or gold as the growing season progresses. When the wind blows, the leaves sparkle as the light hits their fluttering green tops and metallic bottoms. The leaves turn yellow in autumn.

Bark and Flowers

• Sprawling nutmeg hickories have trunks about 2 feet wide with bark that sheds in plates. It has separate male and female flowers. As the leaves unfold in spring, male flowers grow in drooping clusters. Spikes of female flowers that look like tiny nuts grow on the tips of new growth. Squirrels love the small, hard nuts and begin removing them from the tree when they are still green.

Planting

• You’ll rarely find a nutmeg hickory in a nursery, so you’ll have to grow it from seeds that trees begin to yield when they are about 30 years old. You’ll have to bury the seeds that germinate in late spring. In nature, squirrels typically bury them. Nutmeg hickories produce the most seeds when they are 50 to 125 years old. They are slow-growing, a term arborists use for trees that grow less than 12 inches annually.