Butternut, Uses and How to Know if it is a Hybrid ©

 

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The Butternut, juglans cinerea, is a fascinating species of tree, historically it’s nuts were used as food by Native Americans and early settlers, since the kernel of the nut is sweet, oily, and edible; it was also a source medium brown wood, herbal medicines and sugar-sap. 

  

But today, the Butternut tree is a tree under pressure, both from hybridization with the Japanese walnut, juglans ailantifolia, and from a fungus called sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum, which is the cause of Butternut canker, which is a lethal stem disease.  Multiple cankers can girdle branches and tree trunks causing tree death.  Butternut trees are not currently protected as a threatened or endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the United States.  However in New York State, where I live, they are classified as “Exploitably Vulnerable”, which is shorthand under for “...it is illegal for any person to pick, pluck, sever, remove, damage, or carry away any protected plant species anywhere in the state without the consent of the landowner...New York Environmental Conservation Law § 9-1503”.

 

The only good news in this two front war that the Butternut tree is in, is that the hybridized trees, called Buartnut trees, which are part Butternut and part Japanese walnut, tend to resist butternut canker infection and heal quickly if infected.  They also have the characteristic hybrid vigor, grow rapidly and don’t drop their leaves until after a killing frost, unlike butternuts, which drop their leaves two or more weeks before the first heavy frost.

 

But what did I find?  That’s a good question, with important implications for where this article goes.  It can be very difficult to tell Butternut trees from Buartnut trees, especially as they become more genetically mixed, or ‘backcrossed’, with Butternuts.  In many cases genetic testing is the only way to identify if a tree is fully Butternut, juglans cinerea. 

 

Another way is to count the nuts.  According to the USDA, Butternuts bear singly or in clusters of from 2 to 5 nuts, and Buartnut trees typically produce 8 to 15 nuts in a single cluster.  Another is to compare the shape and ridge structure of the nut. 

 

Based on the work of Purdue University it looks like what I found are Butternut, juglans cinerea, nuts.

 

So...Okay I’m not going to eat them.  If they had been hybrid Buartnut trees I would have talked about how to harvest them and use them for food.  However now in a future article, I’m going to talk about how to germinate and plant them instead.

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

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That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

Sources

 

Amherst College, “Butternut (Juglans cinerea)”, https://www.amherst.edu/museums/naturalhistory/education/community-connections/amherst-college-wildlife-sanctuary/206---flora/node/803401, accessed September 12, 2026

 

International Dendrology Society, “Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch”, https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/carya/carya-illinoinensis/, accessed September 12, 2026

 

Purdue University, “Forestry and Natural Resources; Identification of Butternuts and Butternut Hybrids”, FNR-420-W, https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fnr/fnr-420-w.pdf, accessed September 19, 2026

 

USDA; “Butternut Juglans cinerea L.”, https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/butternut, accessed September 19, 2026

 

Wikimedia, “Juglans cinerea, Juglandaceae, Butternut, White Walnut, leaves and bark”, by H. Zell, July 13, 2009, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juglans_cinerea_002.JPG, accessed September 12, 2026