Is a wild walnut a walnut?

Wild walnut is a kind of walnut, also known as hickory, walnut, etc., is a deciduous tree or small tree of the walnut family. The main difference from other species of this genus is that the leaflets are densely covered with pubescent and star-shaped hairs, the fruit sequence is long and drooping, and the seed oil content is up to 34%. It can be used as soap, lubricating oil, wood, bark and pericarp for a variety of economic and medical uses, and is often used as a rootstock for edible walnut.

The wild walnut tree is as high as 1225m, with a breast diameter of 1mm and 1.5m. The young branches are gray-green, separated by glandular hairs and thin sheets of pith, and the terminal buds are tapered and exposed. Leaves odd-pinnate, usually 40-50 cm long, petiole and leaf rachis hairy, with 9-17 leaflets. Leaflets subopposite, sessile, stiff papery, ovate rectangular orbicular or long ovate, 8 × 15 cm long and 3 × 7.5 cm wide, apex acuminate, base obliquely rounded or slightly obliquely cordate, margin serrulate, both surfaces with stellate hairs, sparse above, densely below, midrib and lateral veins also have glandular hairs, lateral veins 11-17 pairs.

The male catkin of wild walnut is born in the axils of the apical leaf scars of the previous year's branches, and the inflorescence axis is sparsely hairy. Male perianth glandular hairy, stamens about 13, anthers yellow, connective slightly protruding. Female inflorescences erect, born at the top of current year's branches, inflorescence rachis densely brown hairy, female flowers arranged in spikes. Female flowers densely brown glandular hairy, ovary ovate, style short. Infructescences often have 6-10 fruits or only a few due to sterility of female flowers, the fruit is ovate or ovoid, the exocarp is densely covered with glandular hairs, the endocarp is hard, and there are irregularly arranged sharp thorny protrusions and depressions between ridges. The flowering period is from April to May and the fruiting period is from August to October.

Wild walnut is born in the mixed wood forest with an altitude of 800 to 2000 meters above sea level, and most of its natural producing areas are in warmer areas. It is a thermophilic tree species, but it has strong cold tolerance, is not resistant to wet heat, requires sufficient sunshine, has high requirements for soil fertility, and is not resistant to barren. Like fertile, moist, well-drained slightly acidic soil to slightly alkaline soil The producing areas are distributed in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangxi, * and other places.

Wild walnut seed oil is edible and can be used as soap and lubricating oil. The wood is solid and uncracked for a long time, and can be used for all kinds of furniture. The bark and exocarp contain tannins, which can be used as raw materials of tannin extract. The endocarp is thick and can be used to make activated carbon. The bast fiber of bark can be used as raw material for fiber industry. Wild walnut oil has the effect of moistening bowels, killing insects and reducing sores, while wild walnut kernels have the effects of moistening the lungs and resolving phlegm, warming the kidney and helping yang, moisturizing the skin and defecating.