Carya Tomentosa - Special Uses

Special Uses

Mockernuts are preferred mast for wildlife, particularly squirrels, which eat green nuts. Black bears, foxes, rabbits, beavers, and white-footed mice feed on the nuts, and sometimes the bark. The white-tailed deer browse on foliage and twigs and also feed on nuts. Hickory nuts are a minor source of food for ducks, quail, and turkey.

Mockernut Hickory nuts are consumed by many species of birds and other animals, including Wood Duck, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red Fox, squirrels, Beaver, Eastern Cottontail, Eastern Chipmunk, Turkey, White-tailed Deer, White-footed Mice, and others. Many insect pests eat hickory leaves and bark. Mockernut Hickories also provide cavities for animals to live in, such as woodpeckers, Black Rat Snakes, Raccoons, Carolina Chickadees, and more. They are also good nesting trees, providing cover for birds with their thick foliage. Animals help disperse seeds so that new hickories can grow elsewhere. Chipmunks, squirrels, and birds do this best. Some fungi grow on Mockernut Hickory roots, sharing nutrients from the soil.

True hickories provide a very large portion of the high-grade hickory used by industry. Mockernut is used for lumber, pulpwood, charcoal, and other fuelwood products. Hickory species are preferred species for fuelwood consumption. Mockernut has the second highest heating value among the species of hickories. It can be used for veneer, but the low supply of logs of veneer quality is a limiting factor.

Mockernut hickory is used for tool handles requiring high shock resistance. It is used for ladder rungs, athletic goods, agricultural implements, dowels, gymnasium apparatus, poles, shafts, well pumps, and furniture. Lower grade lumber is used for pallets, blocking, and so on. Hickory sawdust, chips, and some solid wood are often used by packing companies to smoke meats, and mockernut is the preferred wood for smoking hams. Though mockernut kernels are edible, because of their size they are rarely eaten by humans.

Mockernut hickory is used for smoking meats such as ham.