Juglans cinerea, also known as Butternut or White Walnut, is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America. It grows to a height of 90 feet with light gray bark and has compound leaves, 2" edible fruit, and a rather open habit with few internal branches. Butternut grows quickly but lacks longevity, living rarely longer than 75 years. Its seed is used raw or ground into powder and mixed with cereal flours in making cakes, biscuits, muffins, and bread, with a rich, oily and sweet taste. Butternut prefers moist soil but also adapts well to drier sites. It is found growing up to an elevation of 5,000 ft in the Virginias and is best suited to stream banks and well-drained soils. Butternut trees are found in several hardwood types in the mixed mesophytic forest; common associated trees include basswood, black cherry, beech, black walnut, elm, hemlock, hickory, oak, red maple, sugar maple, yellow poplar, white ash, and yellow birch. Butternuts are light in weight, highly rot-resistant, and used for carving furniture. Butternut bark and nut rinds were also used to dye cloth between light yellow and dark brown. Butternut canker is the most serious disease of J. cinerea but hybrid resistance and other pest control measures are being developed. Butternut is not listed as threatened federally in the US but is listed as "Special Concern" in Kentucky, "Exploitably Vulnerable" in New York State, and "Threatened" in Tennessee.
