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Black Walnut

Photo by Jessie Jury
Published on Project Noah
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41.2095, -88.0306

Field Notes

Description:

Long, pointy leaves and a nut or fruit. Smells citrusy.

Habitat:

Forest preserve

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (5)
Jessie Jury
It was a large tree. I didn't smell the leaves. The fruits all seemed to be solitary. They were about the size of a golf ball. I asked the woman in the nature center at Kankakee State Park (where I spotted it) and she said it was walnut. She could be wrong, of course.
MrsPbio
Questions: 1) Was it a large tree? 2) Did the leaves themselves smell citrusy, or just the fruit? 3) Were fruits solitary, or were some in bunches? 4)How big were the fruits? Black Walnuts have compound leaves similar to yours, but generally bear fruit when the tree is quite large. Sumacs can bear fruit even when quite small-even bush-sized. How about Smooth Sumac?
Jessie Jury
Hi Karen, thanks for your comments. This is my first time using the app. How cool! Just learned it is a walnut tree!
MrsPbio
Shoot. Guess I lost my money on that one! I just vetoed my suggestion. Shining sumac has "wings" on the main midrib (forgot about that!), and I don't see it on yours. Well. This is gonna bug me... hah!
MrsPbio
I think it is likely to be a sumac of some sort. I didn't see "fuzz" on the stems, which would rule out the common Staghorn. There isn't red on the main mid-rib of the compound leaves either, so it's not Poison. I see small uniform teeth around the entire edges of each leaflet. A good clue. Do y'all have Shining Sumac up there? It is quite citrus-y, and in fact the fruits make an extremely tart "lemonade" in September (at least in September down here in Central Flda...not sure about when they'd be ripe up north...). Anyway, look up "Shining Sumac" and see if it's in Illinois. That's what I'm putting my money on. Let me know if I'm wrong!

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Photographed
PublishedJuly 3, 2013

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