Nature’s Notes: Stately black walnuts thriving in corridor

A common area tree was valued by Native Americans and pioneers. In days when food was scarce and winter loomed black walnuts yielded nutritious food that would keep for months.

Black walnut trees are intertwined with history. In addition to food, the tree's dark wood is favored for gunstocks, paneling and furniture. Soldiers in all wars through Korea carried rifles stocked with walnut, but the modern M-16 used in Vietnam and later wars sports a stock of synthetic material.

Walnut lumber is so expensive that poachers sometimes steal trees.

Walnuts partner with squirrels, which carry off nuts and bury them far from the parent tree where they readily sprout. Squirrels don't crack walnuts. They chew through the tough wood-like shell until the nut meat is exposed. On still autumn days you can hear squirrels chewing through the shell a long ways away.

Each walnuts is covered with a thick green husk that quickly turns black when it falls to the ground and ripens. The husk contains a powerful brown stain that's impossible to wash off hands and has been used as a dye. Although the nut meats are delicious and perfectly suited for winter baking extracting them from thick shells is a tough chore. Most commercially sold walnuts come from a different tree species native to Europe.

The natural range of black walnut stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the edge of the Great Plains. Black walnuts are a somewhat weedy tree often found on the edge of fields and in yards. Fast growing, they are one of the latest trees to leaf out in spring and the first to drop leaves in fall. Although walnuts love living in yards homeowners dislike picking up thousands of nuts. This problem is easily solved by using a 'Nut Wizard” tool that rolls along and captures the nuts. The tree also produces a toxin that retards the growth of competing vegetation and can harm garden vegetables planted close to an overhanging tree.

Walnuts are one of the more common and valuable of Corridor trees. Although they may not be the best yard tree they have a rugged beauty and rich history.

Marion Patterson is a retired educator. Rich Patterson is the former executive director of Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids.