Lost Art Press

The Incident with the Mockernut

Posted on by saucyindexer
Looks menacing to me.

Note: It is entirely in the realm of possibilities that the events recounted may have been slightly exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is all true.

Towards the middle of August on nice pre-autumn afternoon I was in the backyard minding my own business when, with a loud bang, something hit the garage roof. A second later, at the far edge of my peripheral vision, something whizzed by and landed with a sharp crack on the driveway. (Here it should be noted that the last time my vision was tested at the DMV office the agent said my peripheral vision was extremely good.) Whatever it was, it missed. Minutes later it happened again with the “missile” missing my head by just a few inches. It crossed my mind that it would be advantageous to take cover in the garage. When the barrage ended I collected the spent shot from the garage walkway and the driveway.

It was the Mockernut! Our hickory tree was throwing murder marbles at me! I was appalled. This is the tree that provides much-needed shade in the summer and gorgeous golden leaves in the autumn. This is the tree I always stop to give a pat to when walking by. It is solid, straight, true. And, apparently, a punk teenager.

The Mockernut hickory, Carya tomentosa, is a member of the Juglandaceae, the walnut family. Our tree is around 55-60 feet high and at least 40-45 years old. These trees don’t start producing murder marbles until they are 25 years old. That seems such a long ”childhood” until you learn they are both slow-growing and long-lived, with some trees reaching the age of 500 years.

Assassins in waiting.

As woodworkers are well aware, hickory wood is extremely hard and is an excellent wood for tool handles. The nuts are also exceedingly hard. People who enjoy hiking or camping in the forest and who have unfortunately lost their food supply to bears can enjoy a snack of hickory nuts if they happen to have brought along a sledge hammer. Try as I might, none of the many nutcrackers in the house could open a fresh Mockernut nut. Hickory nuts are an important food source for squirrels, rabbits and other wildlife, but how in the world do they get them open? Being much smarter than the average human they gather the nuts and wait. After a few weeks of aging the nuts are much easier to open.

Perhaps our Mockernut was feeling feisty after several “off” years and the beating it took last year. On a warm day in April 2020 we had what seemed to be a mini-derecho tear through our neighborhood. In just 15 to 20 minutes shearing winds tore thousands of leaves and small branches from trees. The wind was accompanied by hailstones the size of nickels and quarters. When the wind and hail stopped every surface was covered with ragged green leaves and the air was filled with a fog as the hailstones melted. Weeks afterward the damage inflicted on the springtime trees, especially to the crowns, was hard to miss. In our yard the Mockernut and Southern red oaks faired much worse than the white oaks.

Beyond the deep shade it provides in the summer the Mockernut is an important part of our yard’s ecosystem. It is home to myriad insects that provide food for several bird species. For many birds it is an intermediate stop and refuge on the way to the water bowls. The squirrels have made it their highway connecting their nesting trees to the yard. The Mockernut is also an important feature in squirrel parkour exercises and several branches are used as napping sites during the summer.

I have to admit the initial attack brought back childhood memories of the apple trees in the “Wizard of Oz.” It was upsetting to see an apple tree, mind you a talking apple tree, slap Dorothy and then pelt her with apples. Although there were days when there were so many nuts on the ground walking felt more like in-line skating, I made my peace with the Mockernut. Or so I thought. Just a few days ago we had a light rain followed by a nice breeze. I was in the yard minding my own business when suddenly, WHAPP! I was struck on the side of my head by a golden compound Mockernut leaf.

Pretty until it tries to kill you.

–Suzanne Ellison

23 thoughts on “The Incident with the Mockernut”

  1. The next time you pass you Mockernut, and give it’s trunk a pat; you might want to lean in, and quietly remind it that hickory is a wonderful baseball bat wood…

    1. I’m not sure about escalating hostilities with this particular tree, but thanks for the suggestion.

  3. Nature loves to keep you on your toes.
    Where I used to live we had a healthy population of red kites. I love to watch them soaring and hunting, beautiful animals. One warm day I was half-dozing, half reading on a sun lounger in the garden when there was an almighty “thwack!” as the carcass of a large chicken, minus wings, hit the lawn at terminal velocity having passed about eight inches from my face. I looked up to see a couple of kites circling far, far overhead.
    I presume it was a little too heavy for the kite to keep a hold of, or maybe they were fighting over it. Regardless, I think I narrowly avoided a rather unique obituary.

  5. Several years ago when I built my shop I decided to put it in a grove of oak trees . My thinking was that the leaves would keep it cooler in the summer and the winter when the leaves were gone the sun would help keep it warmer, forgot about one little thing ,called a acorn . Those little suckers make one hell of a racket in the fall when they hit a tin roof . Over the years I have kinda got a custom to the noise ,but when people come over for the first time they are looking for the fallout shelter

  7. Trees are so much more than producers of the lumber we need for projects. Thanks for a wonderful story.

  8. I had a similar experience with coconut palm trees that lined my driveway in a house where I lived in Puerto Rico, as the large coconuts are ripe, they drop from the tall palm trees, and one hitting a person’s head could be killed. Whilst standing on the grass next to the carport (under one of the palms), I had the sudden urge to (and did) step under the carport. Shortly afterwards (a minute or so) a coconut fell and left a sizable dent in the lawn! A very close call…

    Glad you survived your “nut attack”.
    Cheers

  10. There were lots of hickory trees on the property in Florida where I grew up. I remember spending many hours with my brothers cracking (then eating) hickory nuts using my dad’s claw hammers. Ironically we broke more than one of the handles. Though, I’m sure the concrete chopping block (garage floor) was at least partially to blame.

  13. The subdivision my folks have lived in since the late 80’s is a rare 1950’s construction. They didn’t clear cut the development, and so a great many (relatively) old oaks dominate the neighborhood. The twin red oaks that used to be in the front yard had first branches at about 15′ up that were 120+ years old. Acorn season was deadly. One or two at a time is no big deal, but a good wind would send them raining down. Being woken up to thousands of acorns pelting the roof was one thing, but they would dent cars like hail. You could watch them hit driveways and bounce back up above the height of the garage door.

    Our tree was the biggest in the neighborhood, but 6 years or so ago an arborist indicated that it was experiencing root death, which meant it might fall unexpectedly. With the tree only about 20′ from the front door the unfortunate decision to have it removed was taken. Which is how we found out that the mound the tree was growing on was actually the stump of the oak tree that had been there before this one. Given that it was a true twin (joined just above the soil line) I don’t think ours was likely to be revegetation of the original tree but acorns that fell into the goodness of a rotting stump. The “maximum” size of red oaks is 8′ in diameter and there’s no question that the stump in the yard was every bit of that.

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