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 tough, long-lived native canopy hickory of dry eastern US uplands, with a straight trunk and a high open oval-to-rounded crown reaching 60-80 feet. Clear golden-yellow fall color and famously strong, shock-resistant wood. Per NC State Extension it is drought-tolerant and deep-taprooted but DIFFICULT TO TRANSPLANT, so plant it young and site it permanently. Among Tallamy's keystone genera — Carya is a documented larval host for the luna moth and imperial moth — though the bitter 'pignut' nuts are really wildlife food (squirrels and other mammals cache them) rather than a reliable human crop.

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.