Carya

The largest of the hickories and the most valuable nut tree native to North America — a deciduous lowland giant that Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 75-100 feet (occasionally to 150) with a broad rounded crown. Odd-pinnate compound leaves carry 9-17 falcate, finely toothed leaflets, and the sweet edible nuts ripen in fall inside a thin four-sectioned husk. Monoecious and wind-pollinated, it needs at least two varieties nearby for reliable nut set, and 8-10 years from seed before it bears.

A native deciduous canopy tree of eastern North American forests with the most distinctive bark of any temperate tree — long curling shaggy plates that peel away from the trunk in vertical strips. Edible nuts (one of the few hickories with sweet kernels rather than bitter). Slow-growing + long-lived (200-300+ years). Among Tallamy's keystone genera — Carya hosts hundreds of Lepidoptera species.