# Id these nuts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529 "2013-12-31T01:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/1 "2013-12-31T01:03:00Z")
[Pic 1.](http://s294.photobucket.com/user/badger60/media/nuts2_zpsbd9a14a9.jpg.html#/user/badger60/media/nuts2_zpsbd9a14a9.jpg.html) [Pic 2.](http://s294.photobucket.com/user/badger60/media/nuts2_zpsbd9a14a9.jpg.html#/user/badger60/media/nuts1_zps6849063f.jpg.html). They look a little like hickory, but I don’t think they’re hickory. The leaves as I recall–which had already turned brown and were mostly strewn around under the tree–were somewhat lobate, unlike hickory. North central South Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/2 "2013-12-31T01:40:27Z")
Black walnut? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/3 "2013-12-31T01:57:39Z")
I’d go with chestnuts. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/4 "2013-12-31T02:00:40Z")
They look a lot like hickory to me. Are you sure you matched the leaves to the tree that made the nut? ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/5 "2013-12-31T02:24:16Z")
Definitely a walnut. Black walnut is a North American native. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/6 "2013-12-31T02:51:44Z")
Not that it will be of much help, but, [this is a satellite view](http://s294.photobucket.com/user/badger60/media/tree_zps8a187d3e.png.html#/user/badger60/media/tree_zps8a187d3e.png.html%5B/url) of the tree up under which it was found up under. Doesn’t look like any walnut I’ve ever seen, but that’s not to say I’ve seen them all. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/7 "2013-12-31T05:30:00Z")
For your perusal: Here is [Red Hickory](http://i2.wp.com/powellgardens.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/hickoryredpignutnuts.jpg), _Carya ovalis_. Here is[Pignut Hickory](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Pignut-hickory-nut.jpg), _Carya glabra_. [Chestnuts](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080516004409/recipes/images/9/9d/Chestnuts.jpg) are too smooth. [Black walnuts](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Black_Walnut_Juglans_nigra_Nut_2400px.jpg) are too rough. Hickories are just right. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/8 "2013-12-31T11:50:33Z")
Thanks. Red hickory does seem to match up pretty well. The only thing that bothers me is the leaves, unless they were blown under this tree from something nearby. If I’m ever invited back, I’ll get a sample of those, too. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/9 "2013-12-31T13:28:50Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > North central South Carolina. Eastern or western half? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/10 "2013-12-31T13:50:33Z")
> [@newme](#): > > [Chestnuts](http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080516004409/recipes/images/9/9d/Chestnuts.jpg) are too smooth. Those don’t look like chestnuts, more like [\*horse \*chestnuts](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Aesculus_hippocastanum_fruit.jpg) or buckeyes. They taste like a horse’s lower-than-chest nuts according to _House_. Also they’re poisonous (to man and horse alike). Actual chestnuts look like more [this](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_17xNmA7JGww/TUZGnj3BQII/AAAAAAAAA_A/1Norv29CYFM/s1600/chestnuts-fall-superfoods-lg.jpg), with one markedly flatter side, a little hairy pointy end and the hilum on the other end. That being said, in either case it would be hard to mistake these nuts for any other since they come in unmistakable spiky capsules. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/11 "2013-12-31T14:07:22Z")
Agreed, the ones in that example (not the OP’s) look like horse chestnuts. My grandfather had a horse chestnut tree on his farm, and the nuts are **very** high-gloss and smooth. (In my professional opinion as a farmer’s grandkid, they’re ideal for chucking down the paved road and seeing what kind of distance and how many times you can make them skip.) ---
**Author:** ![James\_Toothpaste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@James\_Toothpaste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Toothpaste)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/12 "2014-01-01T16:45:37Z")
Walnut. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-these-nuts/677529/13 "2014-01-01T18:11:13Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > (In my professional opinion as a farmer’s grandkid, they’re ideal for chucking down the paved road and seeing what kind of distance and how many times you can make them skip.) I went to high school in a rather posh, historical school (IIRC built under Napoleon), complete with a huge park filled with conker trees. Every year come late autumn, regular as clockwork, the head teacher would make an official announcement that “the principal has asked me to tell you to refrain from flinging chestnuts at each other, somebody will get hurt” or “please stop putting chestnuts inside your snowballs, thanks”. Inevitably followed a week or so later by “no really, guys, stop it, somebody got hurt”. Sometimes it was about not flinging them over the walls either because they’d cracked a motorist’s windshield or beaned an innocent passer-by, however. So you see, we just couldn’t get a break. It was like Catholicism all over again : here’s these super fun toys for you kids but DON’T TOUCH THEM ! 🙂