Butternut, or white walnut, is a medium-sized spreading tree that belongs to the walnut family. It grows in the Eastern United States from Maine to Minnesota and south to Arkansas and Georgia.

The tree's light gray bark has broad, flat, diamond-shaped ridges. The leaves have 11 to 17 pointed leaflets, which are hairy and sticky. Butternut fruits are oblong and pointed. They grow in clusters of up to five fruits. Each fruit consists of a nut inside a hard shell that is covered with a greenish-brown husk. The husk is spongy and covered with sticky hair. When the nuts are soft and green, they can be preserved as pickles. When hard and ripe, the nuts taste sweet and are very oily.

Butternut wood is light brown with a satin like luster. It is soft, light-weight, and coarse-grained. The wood is used for carvings and to make furniture. Sometimes the tree's sap is used to make sugar. The husks have medicinal properties. Pioneers dyed homespun clothing with yellow or orange dye from the husks and bark of butternut trees.

Scientific Classification. The butternut tree is in the walnut family, Juglandaceae. Its scientific name is Juglans cinerea.

Contributor: Kenneth R. Robertson, Ph.D., Botanist, Illinois Natural History Survey.

See also WALNUT.