Trees , 5-18 m. Bark light to medium gray or brownish, divided into narrow checkered plates. Twigs with distal edge of leaf scar notched, glabrous or bordered by poorly defined velvety zone; pith brown. Terminal buds narrowly ovoid or conic, flattened, 4-7 mm. Leaves 18-38 cm; petiole 3-6 cm. Leaflets 9-15, lanceolate to lance-ovate, symmetric or falcate, 6.5-10.5 × 1.5-3.4 cm, margins serrate, apex narrowly acuminate; surfaces abaxially with capitate-glandular hairs, simple or 2-4-rayed fasciculate hairs, and often scales scattered over veins and blade, axils of proximal veins with prominent tufts of fasciculate hairs, adaxially with capitate-glandular hairs, sometimes also scattered fasciculate hairs, becoming glabrate except along major veins; terminal leaflet usually small or none. Staminate catkins 5-8 cm; stamens 20-40 per flower; pollen sacs 1.2-1.4 mm. Fruits 1-3, subglobose or short-ovoid, 2-3.5 cm, smooth, densely covered with capitate-glandular hairs and peltate scales, when very immature also fasciculate hairs; nuts globose to ovoid, 1.8-2.7 cm, deeply longitudinally grooved, surfaces between grooves smooth.

Flowering spring (Apr-May). Along streams and rocky canyon sides; 300-2100 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Okla., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, and Sonora).

Specimens intermediate between Juglans major and both J . microcarpa and J . nigra are discussed under the latter species.

Plant: tree; up to 15 m tall and 1.2 m in trunk diameter, sometimes with several trunks; STEMS when young dark to light brown, finely whitish glandular pubescent or puberulent, with prominent lenticels

Leaves: 15-43 cm long; rachis finely whitish glandular-puberulent, rarely glabrous; leaflets 9-15(-17), serrate, opposite or alternate, sessile or short-stalked, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, (0.6-)2-3.5 cm wide and (2-)6-11.5(-13) cm long, the bases tapering and oblique, the apices acuminate; terminal leaflet usually smaller than lateral ones

INFLORESCENCE: staminate and pistillate flowers in separate erect or pendant catkins or spikes

Flowers: staminate catkins 7-17 cm long, slender, individual floral bracts small, whitish-tomentose; stamens 30-50; pistillate flowers 1-few, glandular-pubescent

Fruit: FRUITS a drupe-like nut, with a fibrous, slightly fleshy husk derived from the involucre and calyx globose to oval, (1.9-)2.3-3.0 cm in diameter; husk thin, glandular-pubescent, inconspicuously verrucose; nut 1.8-2.8 cm in diameter, subglobose, slightly compressed, longitudinally striate, sometimes deeply so; SEED solitary, 2-lobed, with large, fleshy, oily cotyledons, lacking endosperm at maturity; often consumed as food

Misc: Along mountain streams; 750-2150 m (2500-7000 ft)

REFERENCES: Laferriere, Joseph E. 1994. Juglandaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 219.

Common Name: Arizona walnut

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

Wetland Status: FAC

General: Tree up to 15 m tall, with a trunk diameter of 1 m or more, but usually much less. Bark is grayish brown, furrowed on mature trees. 

Leaves: Alternate, 15-30 cm long, odd-pinnate with mostly 9-15 leaflets, coarsely serrate, acuminate at apex, cuneate, rounded or somewhat asymetrical at the base, pubescent when young, later glabrous or nearly so, yellowish-green.

Flowers: Greenish catkins.

Fruits: Round, brown-haired husks about 2-3 cm in diameter, with deeply grooved nuts.

Ecology: Along streams and in canyons in all counties in Arizona from 3,500-7,000 ft (1067-2134 m).

Distribution: sw UT, AZ, sw NM, TX, OK; south to c MEX.

Notes: Diagnostic characteristics include the ascending habit of branches and trunks; fissured bark; the large, alternate, odd-pinnate, fragrant leaves with 9-15 serrate leaflets; and 2-3 cm diameter green to dark brown husks that surround the fruit.

Ethnobotany: Nutshells were used to make brown dye. Nuts eaten by Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache, Hualapai, and Navajo. The Yavapai make a decoction of pulverized nut juice as a drink, trees used in building lodges by Mescalero.

Etymology: Juglans is Latin for walnut, while major means primary or biggest.

Synonyms: Juglans elaeopyren, J. microcarpa var. major, J. rupestris var. major

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015