Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | Medium to large tree. |
| Leaves: | Odd-pinnately compound with 7 to 17 leaflets. (Most commonly, 9 or 11 leaflets.) The leaf arrangement is alternate. Leaflets are lanceolate with a variable amount of small, blunt serrations. |
| Flowers: | Very small and not very noticeable. Male flowers hang in catkins. |
| Fruit: | A nut held in a leathery husk. The husk is initially green and then it dries to brown and splits open along the four seams. |
| Bark: | Gray to light-brown and it transforms from smooth to flaky as the tree ages. (Very similar to the bark on a pecan.) Larger trunks are covered in a thick layer of flaking bark plates, giving them a "shaggy" appearance. |
| Habitat: | Wetlands and flood zones along rivers. |