Hickory occurs as tree of the genera Carya and Annamocarya. A genus Carya includes 17-19 coinage of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and large nuts.

Of the 17-19 mintage, 12-13 come indigene to North America (11-12 in the United States, 1 inside Mexico), and Five-6 metal money from either China and Indochina. A second Asian metal money, Beaked Hickory, antecedently enrolled when Carya sinensis, is today treated within the separate genus when Annamocarya sinensis.

Hickory flowers are little yellow-green catkins produced in spring. It is anemophilous and self incompatible. A fruit is a globose or even ovate nut, Two-Five cm yearn & I.Five-Three cm across, enclosed around the 4-valved shell which splits open at maturity. A nut plate is heavy & pinched inside virtually all metal money, thinly inside two or three, notably C. illinoinensis; these are divided into deuce halves which split apart once a seed germinates.

Species and classification
;Northerly America '''Carya sect. Carya' - average hickories Carya floridana Scrub Hickory Carya glabra Pignut Hickory Carya myristiciformis Nutmeg Hickory Carya ovalis Red Hickory (treated as a synonym of C. glabra by Flora North. Amer.) Carya ovata Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata volt-ampere. australis (syn. C. carolinae-septentrionalis) Southern Shagbark Hickory Carya laciniosa Shellbark Hickory Carya pallida Sand Hickory Carya texana Black Hickory Carya tomentosa (syn. C. alba) Mockernut Hickory

'Carya sect. Apocarya' - pecans Carya aquatica Water Hickory Carya cordiformis Bitternut Hickory Carya illinoinensis Pecan Carya palmeri Mexican Hickory

;Asia 'Carya sect. Sinocarya' - asian hickories Carya dabieshanensis Dabie Shan Hickory (may be synonymous using C. cathayensis) Carya cathayensis Chinese Hickory Carya hunanensis Hunan Hickory Carya kweichowensis Guizhou Hickory Carya poilanei'' Poilane's Hickory Carya tonkinensis Vietnamese Hickory

Annamocarya - beaked hickories Annamocarya sinensis (syn. Carya sinensis) Beaked Hickory

Uses
Hickory wood is extremely hard, eventually flexible, & is valued for convienence hold, bows (such as taxus), golf club shafts (sometimes however known as hickory stick, possibly though manufactured of steel or even black lead), walking canes etc. & for punitory utilize as a switch or rod (like hazel), and especially as a cane-prefer hickory stick in schools. These are too extremely prized for wood-burning stoves, because of its high caloric content. Hickory wood is besides the favorite nature and severity for smoke curing meats.

The bark extract from Shagbark Hickory is as well utilized around an comestible sirup that is similar to maple syrup, with the slightly bitingly, smoky taste.

A nuts of some metal money come toothsome, when others come bitterly & merely suitable for carnal provender. Shagbark hickory & Shellbark Hickories come regarded by a few when a finest nut trees.

Whilst cultivated for their nuts, note that because of their self-incompatibility, clonal (grafted) trees of the equivalent cultivar cannot pollenize each other. Two or other different cultivars must exist as planted together for successful pollination. Seedlings (grown from either hickory nuts) might ordinarily own sufficient inherited variation.