#butternut tree

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Yesterday (Wren Day/Lá an Dreoilín ) I walked the bounds with the wren I use symbolically on my altar and an amulet bag I made that holds my found Carolina wren feathers. I started at the creek—a personal sacred space—where I made an offering of wassail. We then visited many of the trees that are sacred to me.

My partner purchased the wren from CamilleDesigns on Etsy.com

*no wrens were harmed

[rjalker]

How to tell a butternut (juglans cinerea) from a black walnut (juglans nigra) using the fruit for identification.

here since I keep explaining it on iNaturalist

Both species can be found in the eastern half of the united states, with the butternut being more common from the very northern parts of georgia and up, and the black walnut extending into Florida, Loiusiana, and Texas. 

Butternuts have football shaped nuts, with fuzzy, and smooth husks, which, when ripe, will stay green for a while even after they’ve fallen from the tree.

Black walnuts have round nuts, with bumpy, but not fuzzy shere-shaped husks, which, when ripe and fallen from the tree, quickly begin to change from green, to yellow, to brown, and finally to black.

_______

Step one: Look at the husk

Here’s a picture of me holding a butternut, still in the husk.

Note the oval shape, and the soft covering of hairs, and the small specks of white.

[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a butternut, with grass in the background. The nut has a light green husk that is shaped like an oval, big enough to fit in the palm of the hand, with some cut grass stuck to the fine hairs that cover it. End ID.]

Here is, for comparison, jeffgarner’s photo of a black walnut that is still in the husk.

Note that it is round like a ball, with no hairs, but a slightly bumpy texture. The brown specks and the spot on the side are where the husk is already starting to break down. 

[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a black walnut, with fallen leaves in the background. The black walnut is spherical, with a yellow-green husk that has a large patch of brown on one side, and smaller specks of brown covering it. End ID.]

_______

Step two: Look at the nut.

Butternuts are football shaped, and covered in very noticeable spikes, which black walnuts lack.

Here is my picture of a freshly-cleaned butternut husk.

[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding a butternut, with a black keyboard in the background. The nut is oval shaped, and warm brown, with a point on one end, and deep ridges covered in spikes going down from one to the other, and it is shiny from being wet. End ID.]

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And here is carlingkirk’s photo of a cleaned black walnut. 

[ID: A photograph of a white hand holding up a black walnut, with an indistinct background. The black walnut is round, with a bump on end, with flat ridges that curve along its surface. Some of the blackened husk is still stuck to it, and it is shiny from being wet. End ID.]

If you can only find half or part of a nut, you should still be able to clearly distinguish between the two by looking at the texture and size. Butternuts are longer, so they’re bigger than black walnuts, which tend to be small on most trees.

Both are edible, but butternuts are currently endangered, so if you are lucky enough to find one, instead of eating it, please consider planting it, either somewhere in the woods you know it will be able to grow, or at your house if you own the property, or in a cntainer if you don’t. If it’s fall when you find it, you can start it in a pot that’s at least a foot tall, cover it with mulch or fallen leaves or both, and keep it in there outside over the winter. If possible, place chicken wire over or around it, to prevent squirrels from stealing it.

When the seedling begins to emerge in the spring, you can move it to a deeper container. A five gallon bucket (which you can buy in the paint section at pretty much any big store) with holes drilled in the bottom will be good enough for the tree for at least a few years while it grows. In the meantime, you can try to find someone who own property that is willing to grow it, or some other plan. As long as you give it a big enough container, it should be able to keep growing, but eventually (even if that eventually is years down the line) it should be put in the ground so that it can access as many resources as possible for growing healthy.

Butternuts are endagered because of a fungus called “butternut canker”, which is killing the trees. It is very important to grow these trees from collected seeds, so that the species can continue to evolute and possibly adapt better defences against this blight.

and there you go.

If you live in Hanover, Pennsylvania, if all goes well, by 2030-something, there should be at least three butternut (and pawpaw!) trees growing here, that should start producing fruit soon. You’re welcome. 

[moss-and-stone]

Butternut tree at the Kingsbrae gardens.

[rjalker]

[rjalker]

you constantly posting about butternuts makes me want to try one...

Apparently they taste buttery, but I've never tried one since I'd rather plant them than eat them since they're endangered lol.

I don't know how long it takes them to reach maturity but whenever my little baby is old enough to fruit I'm going to try at least one.

I hope they taste different from black walnuts, because lots of people love them and I think they taste horrible. They do seem like they would be easier to eat, though, since they crack open in half and don't seem to have complicated insides.

IDK where you live, but here's a map of observations for the whole planet on iNaturalist

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=54792

(not all of them are butternuts, they're things people are confusing for them, lol, I'm slowly going through and confirming or denying the ones I can tell apart)

you can also probably find places to buy seeds or trees online, though I haven't tried looking for any to eat! (but I assume if they're viable seeds, you can also eat them)

Someday I'll find out what they taste like.

oh actually I just googled it it says it'll take 7-10 years for a tree from seed to start producing, sooooooooooooo I might have some by 2030-2031?

Date to look forward to!

[rjalker]

Me @ everyone in Hanover, Pennsylvania, in who knows how many years when the seeds I’ve planted are old enough to start producing:

[ID: The meme of the man throwing a rat towards the camera, now edited so that he is throwing a motion blurred butternut, an oval shaped walnut, with the caption, “Rejoice - Butternuts be upon ye”. End ID.]

[rjalker]

It decided to sprout entirely overnight. It wasn't above the soil yesterday at all.

[rjalker]