Click on the images help you identify a butternut.
Form
Smaller than black walnut, seldom more than 30 to 50 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 24 inches, although in forests it can reach 80 feet with a diameter of 36 inches. The trunk is usually divided, forked, or crooked. The top develops into an open, broad crown. Distinguished from black walnut by velvet collars just above scars left by last year’s leaves.
Bark
Divided into ridges, light gray on branches and trunks of small trees, becoming darker on larger trees.
Leaf
Leaves are alternate on the stem, 15 to 30 inches long, and pinnately compound, with 11 to 17 sharply pointed, oblong, finely toothed leaflets. Leaflets are yellowish green above and hairy underneath. Leaves turn yellow or brown in autumn.
Fruit (seed)
Fruit is a light brown nut enclosed in an oblong, somewhat pointed, sticky, yellowish-green husk about 2 inches long. The husk is covered with short, rusty, clammy, sticky hairs. The nut has a rough, grooved shell and an oily, edible kernel.
Range
Found in southeastern and east-central Minnesota. Shade-intolerant and fast-growing. Populations are being reduced by a fungus called butternut canker.
Wood uses
Wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, and light brown. It takes a good polish and is used for furniture and interior finish for houses. A yellow dye can be made from the inner bark and nut husks.