Black Walnut, Juglans Nigra, (Northern Source), Tree 3 Seeds Northern Black Walnut, Juglans nigra, (Northern Source), Tree Seeds Black Walnut is a large deciduous tree typically growing 75 to 100 feet tall with and an oval to rounded crown. Mature trees characteristically have long trunks, often with an absence of lower branching. Fissured, sharply ridged, dark gray-black bark forms diamond patterns. Black Walnut features odd-pinnate compound leaves to 24 inches long, each with 13 to 23 oblong to lanceolate leaflets. Leaves are late to emerge in spring and early to drop in fall. Leaves are strongly aromatic when crushed. Fall color is yellow. Yellow green monoecious flowers appear in late spring, the male flowers in drooping hairy catkins and the female flowers in short terminal spikes. Female flowers give way to edible nuts, each being encased in a yellow-green husk. Nuts mature in autumn, falling to the ground where the husks blacken as they rot away. Kernels are edible but hard to extract. Black Walnuts are harvested for commercial sale. The distinctive tasting nuts are in demand for baked goods and ice cream, but people must be quick to harvest them before the squirrels. The shells are ground for use in many products. The wood from this tree is highly valued for a number of commercial uses including cabinets, furniture, gunstocks and fine veneers. It is perhaps the best furniture wood available from any native American tree. Overharvesting of trees for the wood has greatly reduced the native populations in the wild. Native Americans used the nuts for food and boiled the tree sap for syrup. They also reportedly threw the husks into ponds to poison fish, making them easier to catch. Juglans comes from the Latin words jovis and glans meaning nut of Jove. Nigra means black, in reference to the dark bark and nuts. Leaf: Alternate, pinnately compound, 12 to 24 inches long with 10 to 24 leaflets. Leaflets are ovate-lanceolate, finely serrate, and 3 to 3 1/2 inches long, rachis is stout and somewhat pubescent; yellow-green to green above, slightly paler below. Flower: Monoecious (separate male and female flowers on the same plant). Male flowers are single-stemmed, yellow-green catkins, 2 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches long; females are on a short spike near the end of the twig, green-yellow in color, appear in the spring. Fruit: Round, 2 to 2 1/2 inches across, with a thick, green indehiscent husk. The husk contains an irregularly furrowed, hard nut that contains sweet, oily meat (edible). Matures in late summer to fall. It normally takes 4 to 6 years for a young tree to bear nuts. Commercial seed-bearing age begins at about 20 years and is optimum from age 30 to 60 years. Good crops can be expected every 2 to 3 years, with light crops during intervening years. The nuts are attractive to a variety of wildlife. Twig: Stout, light brown, with buff-colored chambered pith; buds are tan, and large with a few pubescent scales; leaf scars are 3-lobed, resembling a "monkey face". Bark: Brown on surface, darker brown when cut, ridged and furrowed with a rough diamond pattern. Form: A medium to large tree up to 100 feet in height that develops a straight, clear bole with a narrow crown under competition, twigs and branches quite stout.