Fruit more or less obovoid, about 1′ long and ⅘′ in diameter, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base.
Distribution. Southern New England to Missouri and northern Arkansas; on the mountains of North Carolina, on the coast of Georgia and in north central Alabama. The common “Pignut” in the middle western states, varying to f. _acuta_ Sarg. with nuts pointed at the ends and closer bark; only near Rochester, Munroe County, New York.
Other forms of _C. ovalis_ are var. _hirsuta_ Sarg. (_Hicoria glabra hirsuta_ Ashe) with obovoid compressed fruit narrowed into a stipitate base, with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness, scaly bark, pubescent winter-buds, leaves with pubescent petioles and leaflets pubescent on the lower surface; a common tree on the mountains of North Carolina up to altitudes of 2000° above the sea; and var. _borealis_ Sarg. (_Hicoria borealis_ Ashe) with pubescent branchlets and winter-buds, leaves pubescent early in the season, ellipsoidal or ovoid flattened fruit with a husk ⅛′—⅕′ in thickness, an ovoid nut ridged to the base, and scaly bark; only in southeastern Michigan.
Leaves 6′—8′ long, with slender petioles rusty pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, with 5 or rarely 7 lanceolate to oblanceolate leaflets long-pointed and acuminate at apex, unsymmetrical and rounded or cuneate at base, serrate with remote cartilaginous teeth, sessile or the terminal leaflet short-stalked, covered when they unfold with rufous pubescence, soon glabrous, at maturity thin, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, yellow-green above, often brownish below, the upper three 3½′—4′ long, 1′—2′ wide, and about twice larger than those of the lowest pair. Flowers: staminate in long-stalked scurfy pubescent aments 1′—1½′ in length, produced at the base of branchlets of the year from the axils of bud-scales, and often of leaves, scurfy pubescent, their bract ovate, acuminate, a third longer than the calyx-lobes; stamens 4 or 5, anthers yellow, slightly villose near the apex; pistillate in 1 or 2-flowered spikes, obovoid, thickly covered, like their bracts, with yellow scales. Fruit obovoid, gradually narrowed, rounded and sometimes slightly depressed at apex, narrowed below into a short stipe-like base, occasionally slightly winged at the sutures, often roughened by prominent reticulate ridges, puberulous and covered with small yellow scales, ⅘′—1½′ long, ¾′—1′ in diameter with a husk 1/12′—⅛′ thick, splitting freely to the base by 2 or 3 sutures; nut pale or reddish, subglobose, not more than ⅗′ in diameter, or ovoid or rarely oblong, acute at base, narrowed and rounded at apex, slightly compressed, with a shell 1/12′—⅛′ in thickness.