Trees , to 39 m. Twigs reddish brown, often turning black by fall or upon drying, slender, glabrous. Terminal buds reddish brown to black, ovoid, 6-15 mm, mainly glabrous. Leaves 2-3 dm; petiole 4-12 cm, mainly glabrous. Leaflets 4-19 × 1-6.5 cm, terminal petiolules 3-12 mm; blades abaxially with a few hairs, and with small 2- and 4-lobed peltate scales. Staminate catkins to 6 cm. Fruits 2.5-3 × 2.5-3 cm; husks 5-8 mm thick.

Flowering spring. Wet bottomlands, rocky hillsides, and limestone outcrops; 150-200 m; Ala., Ga., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn.

Much like no. 7 [Carya ovata (Mill.) K. Koch]; twigs very slender, with a small black bud, terminal lfl lanceolate or oblanceolate, a fifth to a fourth as wide as long, little different from the adjacent ones; fr and nut only two-thirds as large as in no. 7; 2n=32. Upland, often calcareous woods; s. Va. to Tenn. and Ga. Perhaps better treated as C. ovata var. australis (Ashe) Little.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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