Hickory

# Overview
Trees in the genus Carya (Template:Lang-grc "nut") are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 1719 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (State of Assam), 11 or 12 are from the United States, two to four are from Canada and four are found in Mexico.
Another Asian species, beaked hickory, previously listed as Carya sinensis, is now treated in a separate genus, Annamocarya, as Annamocarya sinensis.

# Species and classification
In the APG system, genus Carya (and the whole Juglandaceae family) has been recently moved to the Fagales order.
- Carya sect. Sinocarya  Asian hickories
Carya dabieshanensis M.C. Liu  Dabie Shan Hickory (may be synonymous with C. cathayensis)
Carya cathayensis Sarg.  Chinese Hickory
Carya hunanensis W.C.Cheng & R.H.Chang  Hunan Hickory
Carya kweichowensis Kuang & A.M.Lu  Guizhou Hickory
Carya poilanei Leroy - Poilane's Hickory
Carya tonkinensis Lecomte  Vietnamese Hickory
- Carya dabieshanensis M.C. Liu  Dabie Shan Hickory (may be synonymous with C. cathayensis)
- Carya cathayensis Sarg.  Chinese Hickory
- Carya hunanensis W.C.Cheng & R.H.Chang  Hunan Hickory
- Carya kweichowensis Kuang & A.M.Lu  Guizhou Hickory
- Carya poilanei Leroy - Poilane's Hickory
- Carya tonkinensis Lecomte  Vietnamese Hickory
- Carya sect. Carya  typical hickories
Carya floridana Sarg.  Scrub Hickory
Carya glabra (Mill.) Sweet  Pignut Hickory, Pignut, Sweet Pignut, Coast Pignut Hickory, Smoothbark Hickory, Swamp Hickory, Broom Hickory
Carya myristiciformis (F.Michx.) Nutt.  Nutmeg Hickory, Swamp Hickory, Bitter Water Hickory
Carya ovalis (Wangenh.) Sarg.  Red Hickory, Spicebark Hickory, Sweet Pignut Hickory (treated as a synonym of C. glabra by Flora N. Amer.)
Carya ovata (Mill.) K.Koch  Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata var. ovata  Northern Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata var. australis  Southern Shagbark Hickory, Carolina Hickory (syn. C. carolinae-septentrionalis)
Carya laciniosa (Mill.) K.Koch  Shellbark Hickory, Shagbark Hickory, Bigleaf Shagbark Hickory, Kingnut, Big Shellbark, Bottom Shellbark, Thick Shellbark, Western Shellbark
Carya pallida (Ashe) Engl. & Graebn.  Sand Hickory
Carya texana Buckley  Black Hickory
Carya tomentosa (Poir.) Nutt.  Mockernut Hickory (syn. C. alba)
Carya washingtonensis - Manchester Extinct Miocene
- Carya floridana Sarg.  Scrub Hickory
- Carya glabra (Mill.) Sweet  Pignut Hickory, Pignut, Sweet Pignut, Coast Pignut Hickory, Smoothbark Hickory, Swamp Hickory, Broom Hickory
- Carya myristiciformis (F.Michx.) Nutt.  Nutmeg Hickory, Swamp Hickory, Bitter Water Hickory
- Carya ovalis (Wangenh.) Sarg.  Red Hickory, Spicebark Hickory, Sweet Pignut Hickory (treated as a synonym of C. glabra by Flora N. Amer.)
- Carya ovata (Mill.) K.Koch  Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata var. ovata  Northern Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata var. australis  Southern Shagbark Hickory, Carolina Hickory (syn. C. carolinae-septentrionalis)
- Carya ovata var. ovata  Northern Shagbark Hickory
- Carya ovata var. australis  Southern Shagbark Hickory, Carolina Hickory (syn. C. carolinae-septentrionalis)
- Carya laciniosa (Mill.) K.Koch  Shellbark Hickory, Shagbark Hickory, Bigleaf Shagbark Hickory, Kingnut, Big Shellbark, Bottom Shellbark, Thick Shellbark, Western Shellbark
- Carya pallida (Ashe) Engl. & Graebn.  Sand Hickory
- Carya texana Buckley  Black Hickory
- Carya tomentosa (Poir.) Nutt.  Mockernut Hickory (syn. C. alba)
- Carya washingtonensis - Manchester Extinct Miocene
- Carya sect. Apocarya   pecans
Carya aquatica (F.Michx.) Nutt.  Bitter pecan or Water Hickory
Carya cordiformis (Wangenh.) K.Koch  Bitternut Hickory
Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K.Koch  Pecan
Carya palmeri W.E. Manning  Mexican Hickory
- Carya aquatica (F.Michx.) Nutt.  Bitter pecan or Water Hickory
- Carya cordiformis (Wangenh.) K.Koch  Bitternut Hickory
- Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K.Koch  Pecan
- Carya palmeri W.E. Manning  Mexican Hickory

# Ecology
Hickory is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. These include:
- Luna moth (Actias luna)
- Brown-tail (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)
- Coleophora case-bearers, C. laticornella and C. ostryae
- Regal moths (Citheronia regalis), whose caterpillars are known as hickory horn-devils
- Walnut sphinx (Amorpha juglandis)
- The Bride (nominate subspecies Catocala neogama neogama)
The hickory leaf stem gall phylloxera (Phylloxera caryaecaulis) also uses the hickory tree as a food source. Phylloxeridae are related to aphids and have a similarly complex life cycle. Eggs hatch in early spring and the galls quickly form around the developing insects. Phylloxera galls may damage weakened or stressed hickories, but are generally harmless. Deformed leaves and twigs can rain down from the tree in the spring as squirrels break off infected tissue and eat the galls, possibly for the protein content or because the galls are fleshy and tasty to the squirrels.
The banded hickory borer (Knulliana cincta) is also found on hickories.

# Tryma
Some fruits are borderline and difficult to categorize.  Hickory nuts (Carya) and walnuts (Juglans) in the Juglandaceae family grow within an outer husk; these fruits are technically drupes or drupaceous nuts, and thus not true botanical nuts.  "Tryma" is a specialized term for such nut-like drupes.

# Uses
Hickory wood is very hard, stiff, dense and shock resistant. There are
woods that are stronger than hickory and woods that are harder, but the combination of strength, toughness, hardness, and stiffness found in hickory wood is not found in any other commercial wood.  It is used for tool handles, bows, wheel spokes, carts, drumsticks, lacrosse stick handles, golf club shafts (sometimes still called hickory stick, even though made of steel or graphite), the bottom of skis, walking sticks and for punitive use as a switch (like hazel), and especially as a cane-like hickory stick in schools and use by parents.  Paddles are often made from hickory. Baseball bats were formerly made of hickory, but are now more commonly made of ash. Hickory is replacing ash as the wood of choice for Scottish shinty sticks (also known as camans). Hickory was extensively used for the construction of early aircraft.
Hickory is also highly prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high energy content. Hickory wood is also a preferred type for smoking cured meats. In the Southern United States, hickory is popular for cooking barbecue, as hickory grows abundantly in the region, and adds flavor to the meat. Hickory is sometimes used for wood flooring due to its durability and character.
A bark extract from shagbark hickory is also used in an edible syrup similar to maple syrup, with a slightly bitter, smoky taste.
The nuts of some species are palatable, while others are bitter and only suitable for animal feed. Shagbark and shellbark hickory, along with pecan, are regarded by some as the finest nut trees.
When cultivated for their nuts, clonal (grafted) trees of the same cultivar cannot pollinate each other because of their self-incompatibility. Two or more cultivars must be planted together for successful pollination. Seedlings (grown from hickory nuts) will usually have sufficient genetic variation.