Pignut Hickory is common medium-large tree of upland forests. The leaves usually are glabrous and usually have 5 leaflets, rarely 7.

Orange Co., NC 4/9/07.

Male flowers are in short, drooping catkins, which appear in mid-April in the Piedmont of North Carolina to early May in the Mountains.

Orange Co., NC 4/9/07.

Male flowers.

Carroll Co., VA 5/10/09.

The leaves are spicily fragrant, like those of the other tetraploid hickories of section Carya (alba, ovalis, and pallida).

Orange Co., NC 7/4/03.

Bark of a medium-sized tree.

The usual variety in the NC Piedmont is var. glabra. There's also var. hirsuta (with densely pubescent rachis) in the Mountains and var. megacarpa (with larger fruits and longer terminal leaflets) in the Coastal Plain, though the ranges of these two are not well known.

Orange Co., NC 7/4/03.

Bark of a mature tree. The bark on large trees has close, intersecting ridges.

Carroll Co., VA 10/16/06.

Carroll Co., VA 10/26/08.