Hickory (from
Powhatan) is a type of
tree, comprising the
genus Carya ( "
nut"). The genus includes 17–19 species of
deciduous trees with
pinnately compound leaves and large
nuts. Five or six species are native to
China,
Indochina, and
India (
State of Assam), as many as 12 are native to the
United States, four are found in
Mexico, and two to four are from
Canada. Hickory
flowers are small, yellow-green
catkins produced in spring. They are
wind-pollinated and
self-incompatible. The
fruit is a globose or oval nut, long and diameter, enclosed in a four-valved
husk, which splits open at maturity. The nut shell is thick and bony in most species, and thin in a few, notably
C. illinoinensis; it is divided into two halves, which split apart when the seed
germinates.