Little Seed Walnut
Juglans microcarpa
Family: Juglandaceae
OTHER NAMES
Texas walnut
Spanish: Nogalito, Nogalillo, Namboca
CHARACTERISTICS
Small deciduous large shrub or small tree with aromatic foliage reaching 30’, some specimens reach 45’. Inconspicuous green flowers in spring followed by green husks that contain the walnut. This species has the smallest nuts of any in the genus.
Where the range of J. microcarpa overlaps with J. major (Arizona walnut), the two species interbreed, producing populations with intermediate characteristics.
LANDSCAPE USE
Screening shrub or small tree.
GROWING CONDITIONS
AN EXPLANAITION OF TERMS USED
SUN full to part
WATER regular to riparian, though it can take periods of drought
SOIL not picky but well-drained soil is preferred
BASIN bottom to middle
CONTAINER does ok in container
HARDINESS hardy into the single digits °F
FEEDING moderate
MAINTENANCE Plants can get anthracnose, a fungal issue that causes trees to blacken and drop their leaves prematurely. Though it looks like a serious issue at first, this fungus is purely a cosmetic issue. Keep plants healthy, they will grow out of the problem, even if the fungus causes the trees to go dormant prematurely. This problem occurs mostly on young trees.
Photo by Jo Roberts, iNaturalist
Juglans microcarpa on SEINET
ECOLOGY Attracts birds and mammals, edible nuts, good nesting tree. Larval host for the Banded Hairstreak (Satyrium calanus), Vestal Tiger Moth (Spilosoma vestalis), the Powdered Dagger (Acronicta impleta), the Fall Cankerworm Moth (Alsophila pometaria), and the American Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidoides).
ETHNOBOTANY
Though the nuts are small, they are edible.
NATURAL DISTRIBUTION
Grows wild along streams and ravines in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and the northernmost states of Mexico.
TAXONOMY AND NAME
This plant is in the Juglandaceae, the walnut family. There are 20 species in the genus Juglans which range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan, and more widely in the New World from southeast Canada west to California and south to Argentina.
The genus Juglans (literally "Jupiter's acorn") is the Latin name of the walnut. Microcarpa means "having small fruit".
Flowers are inconspicuous. Photo by Roland Sauerland, iNaturalist
The fruits on this species are much smaller than other species of Juglans. Photo by Aidan, iNaturalist.
The dried fruits and walnuts of Juglans microcarpa, living up to its name. Photo by Joey Santore, iNaturalist