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Carya tomentosa

Carya tomentosa

9.9
A North American hickory tree with hard wood and hard-shelled edible nuts
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Carya tomentosa
  • To identify a Carya tomentosa, look for its smooth bark and clusters of leaflets.

Examples

  • The Carya tomentosa is prized for its hard wood as well as its nutritious nuts.

  • Several Carya tomentosa trees grow in the forest near my house, providing shade and edible nuts.

  • Researchers studied the habitat preferences of Carya tomentosa across different regions of the eastern United States.

  • The Carya tomentosa tree can grow up to 100 feet tall.

  • Many people enjoy the nuts from the Carya tomentosa.

  • The Carya tomentosa tree produces delicious nuts that many people enjoy harvesting.

  • In parks throughout the eastern U.S., you can find Carya tomentosa trees offering both shade and tasty nuts.

Synonyms

mockernut hickory
vsCarya tomentosa
  • US
9.9

A North American tree with smooth bark, leaves that have seven to nine leaflets, and hard nuts you can eat

has identical description but serves as an alternative common name
big-bud hickory
vsCarya tomentosa
  • Specialized
8.9

A North American tree with smooth bark and hard edible nuts

has the same botanical features but is a different common name
white-heart hickory
vsCarya tomentosa
  • US
9.0

A tree from North America with smooth bark and hard edible nuts

shares the same species description but functions as another common name

Surface Forms

Morphology

Carya + tomentosa

The form is a Latin binomial (genus + specific epithet), so a learner who knows 'Carya' as the hickory genus and understands that a Latin epithet labels a particular species can infer it names a specific hickory. However, the detailed species traits given in the definition (smooth bark, leaflet number, nut characteristics) are specialized botanical information not recoverable from the constituents alone, so the name is only partly transparent to an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Carya tomentosa comes from old Greek and Latin words: Carya means 'nut' and tomentosa means 'covered with soft hairs'. Picture a hickory tree with fuzzy leaf undersides and hard, edible nuts, and you can see why this name fits the tree today.