Another Year of Black Walnuts #ThursdayTreeLove

Love them or hate them, our black walnuts are a beautiful and useful tree native to the North American continent.

They are host trees to over 100 species of butterflies and moths.  Their wood is prized - back years ago, when I lived in Arkansas, fortunate was the land owner who had straight, healthy black walnuts on their land.  They would fetch a nice price if the owner chose to sell them - in fact, there is a Black Walnut calculator online.

But they are a lot more valuable alive, I think, although there are also downsides to the tree.

Black walnut trees produce a chemical called juglone, It leaches from the hulls and the roots. Even dead trees can continue to taint the soil.  Many garden plants, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and also ornamentals such as peonies, columbines, and some lilies, are especially sensitive to this chemical.

They produce delicious nuts but dehulling and shelling them is quite a process.

Here's a post I wrote about black walnuts back in 2021 that includes some information about my experiences with black walnuts from years ago.

This year, our local black walnuts in a small park near where I live are loaded with developing nuts.

I know what that is going to mean, too.  The squirrels will be running across my back yard fence, nut in mouth, to their storage areas.  It will happen again and again.

Then, this coming spring I may find some buried in my flowerpots, where I do not want them.

But it's all good.  It's a majestic tree and Nature's creatures in our area will feast well this fall.

Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.