Hickory a Minor But Distinctive Presence in Maine

By Ken Laustsen and Lloyd Irland

Hickory is one of several hardwood trees that just extends its natural range into Maine, at least for the time being, pending potential impacts of climate change and tree migration. The name comes from a fermented aqueous drink made by Indians out of crushed shagbark nuts, called “powcohiccora,” hence the name “Hicoria,” which in old textbooks was the also the genus. Hickory nuts continued to be a food source for generations; Thoreau, in his Wild Fruits, mentioned harvesting them around Concord. Southerners are fond of hickory-smoking hams, bacon -- and just about anything.

The current genus Carya contains 15 species, which also includes pecans. Probably the best-known of these in the Northeast is shagbark hickory (Carya ovata,) aptly named for its distinctive bark pattern and appearance, and one of the few trees in Maine with compound leaves (See illustration.) Hickories can be found as far as Minnesota, Texas and across the Southeast. In Maine, shagbark can be found in York, Cumberland and Androscoggin counties.  The only other hickory mentioned in MFS’ “Forest Trees of Maine” is bitternut, confined to a few tiny patches in York County. The Maine Natural Areas Program finds it endangered within Maine.

In Maine, hickory is strongly associated with oaks and representative enough to have its own major forest type, Oak/Hickory; with northern red oak the more local and specific forest type. Current estimates have about 315,000 acres within this major group, and it’s seen a steady decrease from 456,000 acres in 1995. Estimates of hickory volume are even more meager, decreasing from 6,000 cords in 1995 to a current estimate of just over 3,000 cords of growing stock volume and the biggest tallied tree on FIA plots is less than 9 inches DBH.

Desirable attributes of the wood are its straight grain and resiliency. It was first used by Yankee settlers as handles for their new-fangled iron axes. As the strongest commercial species in the country, it’s still the premier wood for hand tool handles, though Maine‘s more local and prevalent white ash provides major competition. The old wagon that graces museum grounds or farmer’s side yards probably has hickory spokes and rims in the wheels. Hickory is also well suited to any application requiring steaming and bending. Woodworkers have many mail-order sources of hickory lumber in home project-sized pieces, at prices about the same as red oak.  Hickory has also made it to Hollywood and politics. In one of Clint Eastwood’s films, he encounters some thugs menacing a farmer in front of a hardware store. Eastwood seizes an axe handle from the barrel on the sidewalk and proceeds to inflict serious injury on the thugs. He then gives the axe handle an appreciative look, flips it once in his hand, remarks “good ole hickory” and drops it back into the barrel. The seventh president, Andrew Jackson, was nicknamed “Old Hickory” by his troops for being “as tough as old hickory wood” on the battlefield, one of which was the victory in New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812.

For more information on hickory and its associates in Maine, Roger Moand and Tom Rawinski’s “Outposts of the Oak-Hickory Forest Type in New England,” is downloadable as a PDF file from: www.na.fs.fed.us/stewardship/pubs/pubs.shtm.

Maine Woodland Owners member Ken Laustsen is the Maine Forest Service Biometrician, a certified forester,   and bona fide resource data-nut. Lloyd Irland, former state economist, now divides time between consulting and college teaching.