Bark light or dark gray, eventually separating into fairly long plates; buds glabrous to pubescent, resinous, usually with some slender, appressed hairs; petioles and rachis soon glabrate; lfls usually 7(5), soon glabrous beneath except for scattered hairs on the larger veins and in the vein-axils; terminal lfl oblanceolate to narrowly obovate; fr subglobose, 2-4.5 cm, the husk 2-5 mm thick, eventually splitting to the base; nut pale, 4-angled above the middle; kernel sweet and edible; 2n=32. Upland woods; Mass. to Wis., s. to Ga., Miss., and Mo. (C. microcarpa; Hicoria borealis) Highly variable, but scarcely separable into significant vars.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
