Another tree ID question

I found this on the ground while walking from the civic house in Memorial Park to the Oakland/Dunnell intersection yesterday. Along the paved path past the vibraphones, maybe 10 steps or so before reaching the sidewalk on Oakland. I saw a few still up on the tree. I can’t recall anything else about the tree, and I have no photo of it. It was getting dark. 

It seems like a shell; I haven’t yet tried to open it with any force. Mild to moderate thumb pressure produces no effect. Diameter is 2 to 2 1/8 inches. I have an old tree ID book - the closest match in this book is mockernut hickory. There may be the beginning of a single fissure in this shell, running from the North Pole to at most 1/4 of the way around the circumference. Nothing, though, that would indicate the shell will eventually fall away in 4 equal pieces.   The shell surface does have multiple squiggling ridges running roughly from north pole to South Pole.  They are present 360 degrees around the shell.

I think I read that an inventory of Memorial Park was recently compiled. I can’t find that list online. I did see older tree list online, but it did not cover this section of the park.

Any idea what tree this came from?


Sweet buckeye was next best match, but it, too, wasn’t a full match.


kinda looks like a dried fruit of some sort.


I agree, drummerboy. When I first saw it, that’s what I thought too. But if it’s a dried fruit, then it’s ossified. Still, I wrote it “seems like a shell”. I briefly did wonder about Osage orange, but it’s not that. I know the findings upon me opening it will help, but I’m hoping to ID it before I do that.


Cantaloptus Japonica

It is not a tree, but a preserved fruit used in some Japanese cocktails, tonics, and insect repellants. 


Contact the Memorial Park Conservancy.  They should be able to answer your question. 


I emailed them 2 weeks ago, Joan, but no response. 
For future reference, the address is https://maplewoodmemorialparkconservancy.org
The other is for a Texas-sized park complex in Texas.

Today I did this; I’m still not sure what tree it’s from. Closest I can find still is mockernut.



dickf3 said:

I emailed them 2 weeks ago, Joan, but no response. 
For future reference, the address is https://maplewoodmemorialparkconservancy.org
The other is for a Texas-sized park complex in Texas.

Today I did this; I’m still not sure what tree it’s from. Closest I can find still is mockernut.

I forwarded the link to this thread to a friend who is on the board of the Maplewood Memorial Park Conservancy.  Hopefully, that will get a speedy reply.  If the information goes to me rather than you, I will post it here. 


dickf3 said:

I found this on the ground while walking from the civic house in Memorial Park to the Oakland/Dunnell intersection yesterday. Along the paved path past the vibraphones, maybe 10 steps or so before reaching the sidewalk on Oakland. I saw a few still up on the tree. I can’t recall anything else about the tree, and I have no photo of it. It was getting dark. 

It seems like a shell; I haven’t yet tried to open it with any force. Mild to moderate thumb pressure produces no effect. Diameter is 2 to 2 1/8 inches. I have an old tree ID book - the closest match in this book is mockernut hickory. There may be the beginning of a single fissure in this shell, running from the North Pole to at most 1/4 of the way around the circumference. Nothing, though, that would indicate the shell will eventually fall away in 4 equal pieces.   The shell surface does have multiple squiggling ridges running roughly from north pole to South Pole.  They are present 360 degrees around the shell.

I think I read that an inventory of Memorial Park was recently compiled. I can’t find that list online. I did see older tree list online, but it did not cover this section of the park.

Any idea what tree this came from?

I just got a reply from Deborah Lyons.  I hope this answers your question.   She writes:

I just confirmed that these are indeed shells from the Black Walnut (Juglans nigra).  I apologize to the poster for the lack of response to the MMPC email address; we are transitioning communications and it may have slipped between the cracks.

I thought it looked like the black walnut shells we used to have in our back yard (before the tree roots started to lift on one side, and we took it down). It has been a while, so I wasn't sure.


Thanks Joan. 

I did think that what was inside looked a lot like a walnut shell. What confused me is that its outer “covering” was not at all green and fleshy (what I’m accustomed to with walnut trees), but rather quite hard and shell-like. So I discounted the likelihood that it was walnut.


Possibly the first photo (Feb. 7) is of the “hard inner layer of pericarp” - the labeling and description is ambiguous:

https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/ecoph8.htm

If so: what happened to the green fleshy fruit? Picked 100% totally clean by creatures? Desiccated to nothingness?



sprout said:

I thought it looked like the black walnut shells we used to have in our back yard (before the tree roots started to lift on one side, and we took it down). It has been a while, so I wasn't sure.

Sprout : did you think photo#1 looked like the walnuts you had?


My kid just confirmed "yes, it looked like that". I usually saw them only once they were on the ground for a while and smooshed and rotting. The squirrels would take the good ones away.



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