This hickory tree has dropped all its gold and brown leaves into the garden;  it is beautiful.  

 

All those dots you see on the tree are the hickory nuts!!!  I bet there are a thousand up there.  And there are a few more trees in this area doing the same thing.  

 

The squirrels are very busy going up and down and across the limbs of these trees.  By the time winter arrives all these hickory nuts will be stored and/or planted, and the critters will be well-fed into the spring.

 

There are a number of species of hickory in our area;  some are sweet and edible, others are bitter and inedible.  Three species are listed in my Peterson Field Guides Edible Wild Plants:  Shagbark Hickory, Pecan, and Mockernut Hickory, all in the genus Carya.  I think most of the hickories in our yard are Mockernut, Carya tomentosa.  I have seen some Shagbark Hickory in the neighborhood too, Carya ovata.  That one is easily identifiable by its bark.  Pecan trees, Carya illinoensis are the ones with the sweet edible nuts.  I think the mockernuts are edible too, but I'd rather leave them for the squirrels and the deer.  

 

HAPPY FALL!!!