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| ## butternut {#butternut .Title-Header}                               |
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| *Juglans cinerea* L.                                                  |
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| Plant Symbol = JUCI                                                   |
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Contributed by: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of
North America Project

### ![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.5972222222222223in" height="3.9in"}

## Alternate common names 

White walnut, demon walnut, oilnut

## Uses

Butternut is called \"white walnut\" because of its light-colored wood,
which has a natural golden luster that becomes satin-like when polished.
The wood is only moderately hard and saws and carves easily. It has been
used for furniture, cabinetry, instrument cases, interior woodwork,
including hand-carved wall panels and trim, and church decoration and
altars. It is stocked in specialty lumberyards because little is cut
annually.

Butternuts were often planted close to the house on farmsteads for their
use as food. Kernels were used in baking and cultivars have been
selected for nut size and for ease of cracking and extracting kernels.

They have been popular in New England for making maple-butternut candy.
Early settlers used the fruit husks and inner bark to make orange or
yellow dye and the root bark provided a laxative.

## Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

## Description

*General*: Walnut family (Juglandaceae). Small to medium-sized native
trees with stiff upright branches and a wide-spreading crown, the young
twigs, stems, and leaflets have hairs sticky-oily to the touch; terminal
buds 12-18 mm long; bark brownish-gray, thick, shallowly divided into
smooth or scaly plates. Leaves are pinnately compound, the leaflets (7-)
11-17, ovate to lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, ± symmetric, mostly
5-11cm long, with finely toothed margins, terminal leaflet present, the
lower surfaces densely covered with stellate hairs. Flowers are
unisexual, female (pistillate) and male (staminate), but on the same
tree (the species monoecious), usually not opening simultaneously on any
individual tree; male flowers in slender catkins 6-14 cm long, the
female flowers in terminal clusters of 6-8 flowers each. Fruit is an
oblong-ovoid nut 4-6(-8) cm long, single or in clusters of 2-5, with a
hard, thick, deeply furrowed shell enclosed by a thick husk with a
sticky-glandular surface. The nuts usually remain on the tree until
after leaf fall. The common name refers to the mature nut kernels, which
are sweet and oily, like butter.

## Distribution

Butternut is primarily a species of the northeastern and north-central
US and southern Canada from southeastern New Brunswick to Ontario and
Quebec; in the US in Minnesota to Missouri and eastward through
Tennessee into North Carolina and Virginia, with disjunct outlyers in
Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia. It is
uncommon throughout most of its range and formally listed as rare in
many of the states in which it occurs. For current distribution, please
consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

## Establishment 

*Adaptation*: Butternut is found most frequently in rich woods of coves
and stream benches and terraces, on slopes, in the talus of rock ledges,
and on other sites with good drainage; at elevations of 0-1000 (-1500)
meters. Young trees may grow in considerable competition, but they are
shade-intolerant and mature trees must reach the overstory. Flowering
occurs from April-June and fruiting from September-October.

*General*: Seed production begins at about 20 years and is optimum from
30-60 years. Good crops can be expected every 2-3 years, with light
crops during intervening years. Premature seed losses may result from
consumption by insects, birds, and rodents, and a lack of butternut
trees in the immediate vicinity may limit pollination and fruit
formation. Seeds germinate in the spring after seedfall and a cold
period at 20°-30° C. for 90-120 days to break dormancy.

Stumps of young butternut trees and saplings are capable of sprouting.
The trees are reported to be slow growing and seldom live longer than 75
years.

## Management

Butternut canker is killing the species over its whole range. The fungal
pathogen (*Sirococcus* *clavigignenti*-*juglandacearum*) apparently was
introduced from outside of North America. It was first reported from
southwestern Wisconsin in 1967 but is believed to have spread from the
southeastern US coastal region, where it first appeared about 40-50
years ago. The Forest Service estimated in 1995 that 77% of the
butternuts in the Southeast were dead. The fungus infects trees through
buds, leaf scars, and possibly insect wounds and other openings in the
bark, rapidly killing small branches. Spores produced on branches are
spread by rain, resulting in multiple, perennial stem cankers that
eventually girdle and kill infected trees -- these do not resprout. The
cankered portions should be removed and destroyed and the wounds should
be covered with fungicidal paint; leaves that might harbor fungus (brown
leaf spot) should be destroyed.

A few healthy butternut trees have been found growing among
canker-diseased and dying trees and may be resistant. Black walnut
apparently is unaffected. A research coalition has been formed to locate
surviving trees or populations, characterize sites, identify trees with
putative resistance, develop screening methodology for disease
resistance, study fungal physiology, and preserve germplasm.

Fire easily top-kills butternut and older trees rarely sprout from the
root crown or stump. A single hot fire or repeated cool fires can
effectively eliminate the species in mixed hardwood stands

There is commonly a zone of no-growth or inhibited growth around walnut
trees, because they produce a naphthoquinone (juglone) that selectively
inhibits growth of associated plants. Juglone is concentrated in root
tissue and fruit husks, with lesser amounts in the leaves, catkins,
buds, and inner bark.

## Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture." These plant materials are readily available from
commercial sources.

Two hybrids show strong growth and extreme hardiness and produce nuts
similar to the butternut in clusters of 10-15.

*Juglans cinerea* X *J. regia* = *Juglans* X *quadrangulata*

*Juglans* *cinerea* X *J.* *ailantifolia* = *Juglans* X *bixbii*

## References

Anderson, R.L. & L.A. LaMadeleine 1978. *The distribution of butternut
decline in the eastern United States*. USDA, Forest Service, Forest
Survey Report S-3-78. Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry,
Broomall, Pennsylvania.

Black, W.M. & D. Neely 1978. *Relative resistance of Juglans species and
hybrids to walnut anthracnose*. Plant Disease Rep. 62:497-499.

Coladonato, M. 1991. *Juglans cinerea*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). The
Fire Effects Information System \[Data base\]. U.S.D.A., Forest Service,
Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory,
Missoula, Montana. \<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/\>

Felter, H.W. & J.U. Lloyd 1998. *Juglans* (U. S. P.)---*Juglans*.
King\'s American Dispensatory.

\<http://metalab.unc.edu/herbmed/eclectic/kings/juglans-cine.html\>

Furnier, G.R., A.M. Stolz, R.M. Mustaphi, & M.E. Ostry 1999. *Genetic
evidence that butternut canker was recently introduced into North
America*. Canad. J. Bot. 77:783-785.

\<http://www.cisti.nrc.ca/cisti/journals/cjb/b99-013.html\>

Ostry, M.E., M.E. Mielke, & D.D. Skilling 1994. *Butternut -- strategies
for managing a threatened tree*. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-165. USDA Forest
Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station. St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ostry, M.E., M.E. Mielke, & R.L. Anderson 2000. *How to identify
butternut canker and manage butternut trees*. USDA, Forest Service,
North Central Forest Experiment Station, Northeastern Area.

\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/ht_but/ht_but.htm\>

Rink, G. 1990. *Juglans cinerea L. Butternut*. Pp. 386-390, IN: R.M.
Burns and B.H. Honkala. *Silvics of North America*. *Volume 2.*
*Hardwoods*. USDA, Forest Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.
\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Table_of_contents.htm\>

Schlarbaum, S.E., F. Hebard, P.C. Spaine, & J.C. Kamalay 2000*. Three
American tragedies: chestnut blight, butternut canker, and Dutch elm
disease*. \<http://webriver.com/tn-eppc/symposium/schlarba.htm\>

Stanford, A.M., R. Harden, & C.R. Parks 2000. *Phylogeny and
biogeography of Juglans (Juglandaceae) based on ITS sequence data*.
Amer. J. Bot. 87:872-882.

USDA, NRCS 1993. *Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant
species*. Wetland Science Institute, Laurel, Maryland.

Whittemore, A.T. & D.E. Stone 1997. *Juglans*. Pp. 425-428, IN: *Flora
of North America, North of Mexico*. Vol. 3. Oxford Univ. Press, New
York.
\<http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/Flora/flora.pl?FLORA_ID=12395\>

## Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

## Species Coordinator

### *Gerald Guala*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited 05dec00 jsp; 25feb03 ahv; 060801 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
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