Thought this might interest some on the forum as I had no idea Walnut grew this far south.
Got a call from a friend who has a 2nd home in Ocala, FL. Said they had a black walnut tree that was not doing well and wanted it removed. This was a win-win since they saved $ on tree removal and I wound up with some nice lumber.
This was about 28" at the butt end with some very nice figure. There was some punkiness from damage further up but there was a good amount of usable lumber here.
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Black walnut does not naturally range that far south in Florida. The tree was surely a planted ornamental.
Definitely walnut, but I wonder if being out of range it's not English (planted for the nuts) or one of the Central American species?
We have Black, English and Japanese walnuts here in NZ, all introduced obviously. The Japanese ones have naturalised and are starting to be considered invasive.
While I can't speculate on the origin, there are other trees on the property and neighboring properties.
I was actually more surprised to see the stone wall in the background.
An original tree was probably planted as an ornamental. The squirrels planted the rest.
Yes, squirrels are great in planting walnut, and they will plant them where they want them.
Never underestimate the extent of people acquiring trees, plants, birds, etc from all parts of the world so that they can be the only kid on the block to have one.
The squirrels are pretty amazing to watch bury a walnut. Have seen plenty in the yard just a few feet from the window dig a hole, bury one, cover it up and instantly you can't tell where it was.
I dumped a half a big grocery bag of wormy chestnuts outside our housing unit on USMC housing in Quantico in 1977 and watched a gray squirrel frantically burying them. He'd grab one, run 6' and bury it, grab another and run 75 yards to the other side of the wood line and bury it and return. He did that till they were all gone. He had no rhyme or reason to where he buried them.
Quote from: KEC on March 01, 2022, 08:31:21 PM
Never underestimate the extent of people acquiring trees, plants, birds, etc from all parts of the world so that they can be the only kid on the block to have one.
We are rapidly becoming one huge ecosystem
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 02, 2022, 12:35:04 PM
I dumped a half a big grocery bag of wormy chestnuts outside our housing unit on USMC housing in Quantico in 1977 and watched a gray squirrel frantically burying them. He'd grab one, run 6' and bury it, grab another and run 75 yards to the other side of the wood line and bury it and return. He did that till they were all gone. He had no rhyme or reason to where he buried them.
The squirrels find them by smell. Suspect some think they remember where they buried them.
They are having a hard time now digging through the ice layer from last week's ice storm. Saw one a couple days ago really digging hard for a buried acorn.
Poorly formed, unhealthy black walnut trees [that have some diameter] can yield some nice lumber unlike most other hardwoods. People see walnut as a beautifully grained dark wood but there is another beauty; with walnut slanted grain is not the problem to work like in other woods.
I have seen a few growing I Polk County, Fl., which is about 90 miles south of Ocala. There was one at Kathleen Middle School's land lab (Polk Co.) but it died a few years ago. I should have sawed it, but it was not really big enough for the effort to go cut it. I assume one of the ag teachers planted it as it is one of the trees on Florida's FFA forestry list. There are white oaks, spruce pines, Florida Maples, and spruce pines growing in Lakeland city parks. We are south of the natural range for all of those species, as far as I know.
We are evidently north of the range for mango trees at my house. We have some in pots and one five-year-old volunteer, likely squirrel planted, get killed to the ground a month or so ago due to cold. The potted ones are fine. I moved them into the shop on the cold nights. 15-17 miles away, in the neighborhoods surrounding the school where I work, the mango trees are thriving and only had a few leaves burned by the cold.
Nice walnut!
Quote from: caveman on March 05, 2022, 12:57:57 PM
We are evidently north of the range for mango trees at my house.
It's funny you mention mango. The day after the walnut find I had to unload so I could go grab a mango out of a backyard. When I loaded it there were still some smaller walnut branches on the trailer and I wondered if I'd ever see fresh cut logs of both species on the trailer at the same time again.
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