Looking Back: The value of a black walnut tree

Our vocabulary word for today is allelopathic.

As they used to say on the old “Laugh-In” television show, “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s Dictionary.”

Our subject for this week’s article is the black walnut tree, and it has a unique quality.

It is allelopathic.

If you are a gardener, you may already be aware of this.

You can’t grow tomatoes or apples near a black walnut tree … or peonies, if you have that lovely flower.

The black walnut tree has something in its roots that inhibits the growth of other plants … we all need a little space of our own. The black walnut tree is particularly hostile to tomatoes and apple trees and the flower beloved by many home gardeners, the peony.

Many trees release a chemical that kills grass, for much the same reason, to kill any competition for sun or rain or fertile soil.

Don’t feel too sorry for the grass. It too has chemicals that keep trees from taking root … it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Yet, the black walnut tree makes up for its aggressive ways by having wood that is valued by furniture makers for its deep, almost black, color. As a hardwood, it is one of the most valuable trees in the forest, due to its color, fine grain, ability to keep its shape and its durability.

The wood is also shock resistant.

For that reason, it is used for gun stocks.

Yet, we also can’t neglect its fruit.

The nut of the black walnut is edible.

The black walnut tree grows in the southern American forest. It can be found from New York to northern Florida, from the woods of North Carolina to Texas.

The tree is strong, and many homeowners use it as a shade tree, since it can live for more than 100 years and doesn’t blow down or break in a windstorm. Growing as tall as 90 feet and as wide as two or three feet, the largest tree in Tennessee has a circumference of 14 feet.

And let’s talk about that hard nut of the black walnut … it is hard … really hard.

The ground-up shells of the black walnut are used as a commercial abrasive.

If you have ever tried to crack a black walnut, you know what we are talking about.

Its distant relative, the English walnut, has a thin shell and is commercially sold to people for eating.

The black walnut, however, has a thick shell. If you break it with a hammer, you end up smashing the fruit inside.

In the old days, people would take the nut, which is surrounded with a tough, green, outer layer, and lay it in the sun to dry.

Once dry, the green outer layer can be more easily removed … but not “easy” even then. I recall years ago driving out in the country, on a dirt and gravel road and seeing the roadway ahead of me covered with a single layer of black walnuts.

The farmer who lived by the road had spread his black walnut crop on the road so that cars driving by would crush off the green layer, sparing him the trouble, and the green stain that would cover his hands if he had done the work himself.

The shells were not damaged by a car driving over them … we told you that they were hard.

The nut also has a strong taste and is not to everyone’s liking.

Again, the pioneer knew how to cope with that. He would let the nut dry out again, after the green skin was removed. That second drying helped take out the bitter taste.

But, it was the farmer’s wife who knew what to do next.She would make a black walnut cake, sprinkling the nuts on top. It is a Christmas tradition with many families still.

The tree likes a moist soil and grows well alongside creeks or on land where the water table is high.

Recently, a court case made the news when a man was charged with poaching a black walnut tree. The value of the tree was estimated at $2,500.

If you have a black walnut tree, take care of it … just don’t plant your tomatoes nearby.