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Black Walnut
(Juglans nigra) |
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Black Walnut Leaf and Nuts
Pen and ink drawing by "Wildman" |
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This native tree grows from 50 to 120 feet tall, with dark brown, deeply furrowed bark with flattened ridges.
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Black Walnut Tree
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The alternate, feather-compound leaves consist of 12 to 24 lance-shaped, finely toothed, narrow leaflets 3-1/2 inches long on both sides of a midrib 1-2 feet long.
Slender catkins of inconspicuous, green male flowers hand from the branches in the spring. |
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Black Walnut Leaves and Catkins
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Black Walnut Catkins
Short, even less noticeable female flowers grow at the branch tips. |
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Black Walnut Female Flowers
V-shaped stigmas capture pollen, and the pear-shaped ovarys becomes the nuts. |
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Walnuts resembling green tennis balls 2-1/2 inches across fall to the ground in autumn.
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Black Walnuts in Branch
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This tree and its edible close relatives grow in the northeast, across the south, and into California.
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Black Walnut Leaves with Nuts
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Stomp on the nuts with old shoes over pavement to remove the green husks.
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Black Walnut and Husk
Note the stain on the pavement. |
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Black Walnut Removed from Husk
Wear rubber gloves or your hands will get stained (the stain fades after a few days). Let the nuts dry and mature in their shells a week or so on newspapers, eliminating the stain effect. |
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Black Walnut in Shell, Dry
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Crack the shell with a heavy-duty nutcracker, a vise, heavy hammer, or large rock.
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Black Walnut in Black Walnut Cracker
You can purchase this nutcracker from C.E. Potter, Sapula, Oklahoma 74066, (918) 224-0567. |
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Black Walnut in Black Walnut Cracker, Close-up
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Black Walnut Being Cracked
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Black Walnut Cracked Open
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Remove the nutmeat with a nut pick.
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Black Walnut Nutmeat
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Enjoy these nuts raw or cooked. Black walnuts have a strong, rich, smoky flavor with a hint of wine. Use them any recipe that call for nuts, but unless you’re featuring the black walnut's flavor, use it sparingly, or it will overpower everything else. I often combine one part black walnuts with three parts commercial (English) walnuts. |
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Black Walnut Tree, Bare
The black walnut is one of the first trees to lose its leaves in autumn. |
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