Week 38: Shagbark Hickory (Carl Sandburg, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles S. Sargent)

Fig. 1. Bertha E. Jaques. Young Leaves and Blossoms of Hickory Tree (c. 1910). Smithsonian American Art Museum. [Read more.]

Waning Gibbous Moon; 40 Days to Fall Cross-Quarter Day

Headnote#

Few trees in New England, except perhaps the marvelous paper birch (Betula papyrifera), have quite the visual appeal of the shagbark hickory. The distinction is in the name. A fully shagged-out trunk embodies something between an elegant cascade and a strewn-out mess—a poise we might all hope to achieve, if we are so lucky.

Hickory trees found their name in English by shortening the Algonquin or Powhatan word, pawcohiccora, which refers to the flour or milk made from crushing hickory nuts dry or in water. Their name thus embodies not only this culinary-cultural past but, as writers like Elspeth Hay (in her recent book, Feed Us With Trees) and food foresters around the country are demonstrating, a potential agricultural, social, and ecological future. After all, much of the North American continent, as well as regional and peasant cultures around the world, were once sustained by edible landscapes of fire-shaped forests that produced an abundance of nuts, other nourishing substances, and useful objects. Today, researchers and agroforesters across the Northeast and Midwest are making a healthy, delicious culinary oil from shagbark’s cousin, the Yellowbud, or bitternut, hickory (Carya cordiformis). This all made me curious about the forests that surround us here in New England.

Massachusetts, as the state likes to brag, is the third-densest state in the U.S. but also the 11th-most-forested. Thus, forests comprise a major variety of what are referred to politely, by the local government, as “the natural communities of Massachusetts”: these include formations such as “acidic rock cliff community” and “cultural grassland.” The hickory genus (Carya) contains 19 recognized species, 12 native to North American and seven to Southeast Asia). Hickories are close companions of oaks, including the northern red oak I wrote about last week. Whereas oaks are in the beech family (Fagaceae), hickories are in the walnut family (Juglandaceae); but both are grouped in the higher-level order of beeches (Fagales), all distinguished by the presence of a hard cupule (hull or husk) that partially or completely encloses their fruit.

Together, these two trees define the oak-hickory forest type that represents approximately one-third of the state’s forested land: that’s more than 1,000,000 acres! Such forests are home to some of my favorite plants, including witch-hazel and the pink lady’s slipper orchid. Oak-hickory forest is one of the more diverse types of oak communities, falling near the middle of a spectrum between dry, acidic scrub oak scrublands (where they mix with wild blueberries and other heath species) and riparian, flood-prone oak wetlands (where they mix with ash, willow, or sweetgum) Though companions, oaks and hickories do compete, with fast-growing oaks racing to the canopy while hickories root deep, establish a small stand, and wait in the under-canopy, perhaps for centuries, until an opening appears—a poise we might all hope to achieve, if we are so lucky.

Fig. 2. Sophia Thoreau. Inscribed hickory leaves in memory of her brother, Henry (1868). Concord Museum. Read more.

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Readings#

1. In the moonlight under a shag-bark hickory tree
   Watching the yellow shadows melt in hoof-pools,
   Listening to the yes and the no of a woman’s hands,

   I kept my guess why the night was glad.

   
   The night was lit with a woman’s eyes.
   The night was crossed with a woman’s hands,
   The night kept humming an undersong.

Carl Sandburg. “Shag-Bark Hickory.” Smoke and Steel. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. 164.#

2. I had a favorite young shagbark there

   With ample dark jade leaves and a black, spare,

   Vermiculated trunk. The setting sun

   Bronzed the black bark, around which, like undone

   Garlands, the shadows of the foliage fell.

   It is now stout and rough; it has done well.

   White butterflies turn lavender as they

   Pass through its shade where gently seems to sway

   The phantom of my little daughter’s swing.

John Shade [pseud.]. “Canto One.” Lines 49-57. From Vladimir Nabokov. Pale Fire. 1962. New York: Lancer Books, 1963. 24.#

3. Valley of the Saint Lawrence river, along the northern shores of lakes Ontario and Erie to southern Michigan and southeastern Minnesota, south to the Chattaloochee region of western Florida, central Alabaina and Mississippi, and west to eastern Kansas, the Indian territory, and eastern Texas. A large tree of the first economic value, 24 to 30 or, exceptionally, 39 to 45 meters in height (Ridgroay), with a trunk 0.90 to 1.20 meter in diameter;, rich billsides and sandy ridges; common and reaching its greatest development west of the Alleghany mountains; varying greatly in the size and shape of the fruit. A form with

   small, thin-shelled nuts (C. microcarpa, Nuttall l. c.) is not rare from Delaware southward, and in Michigan. Wood heavy, very hard and strong, tough, close-grained, compact, flexible; lasers of annual growth clearly marked with one to three rows of large open ducts; medullary rajs numerous, thin; color, brown, the thin and more valuable sap-vood nearly white; specific gravity, 0.8372; ashı, 0.73; largely used in the manufacture of agricultural implements, carriages, ax handles, baskets, etc.

   The sweet and edible nuts afford an important article of commerce.

Charles S. Sargent. “Shell-Bark Hickory. Shag-Bark Hickory.” Report on the forests of North America (exclusive of Mexico). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1884. 133.#

Supplementum#

• Elspeth Hay. Feed Us With Trees: Nuts and the Future of Food. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2025.

• “Meet the Shagbark Hickory.” New England Forestry Foundation ().

• Les Engles. “12 Types of Hickory Tree to Know and How to Identify Each Correctly.” The Spruce (August 8, 2026).

• David L. Graney. “Shagbark Hickory.” Silvics of North America (December 1, 1990).

• Anne Krantz and Mary Tebo Davis. “Henry Thoreau and Shagbark Hickories.” University of New Hampshire Extension (December 4, 2019).

Fig. 3. “Hicoria ovata.” From Charles Sprague Sargent. The Sylva of North America, Vol. VII: Lauraceae - Juglandacea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1895.

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✦ From the Earthly Book of Hours ✦#

Now testing version 2.0 of The Earthly Book of Hours, which now includes experiences for The Seasons and The Weather.

I'm experimenting with a login feature that gives DFOS members access to the full reading room experience, including the option to Wander beyond the current time, season, or conditions.

Some other changes in progress:

• The whole site is now time-sensitive (color scheme changes with the hours) and more integrated in design.

• A selection of these weekly Lectio Terra posts are now presented on the site as a way to explore the transformations of the seasons (the posts are still being edited and integrated into the site).

• A new Weather experience asks to check your location so it can pull the local weather forecast and choose a relevant image and reading (only one a few curated so far).

• In the spirit of reanimating traditional media forms, the navigation for the Weather section is based on the traditional visual design of a “station model,” i.e., a “symbolic representation of the weather at a specific reporting station.” I also redid the navigation panes for The Hours and The Seasons to be more informational.

Fig. 4. The Earthly Book of Hours - Work in Progress