Juglans

The leaves and blossoms of the walnut tree normally appear in spring. The male cylindrical catkins are developed from leafless shoots from the past year; they are about 10 cm (3.9 in) in length and have a large number of little flowers. Female flowers appear in a cluster at the peak of the current year’s leafy shoots.[10]

The fruits of the walnut are a type of accessory fruit known as a pseudodrupe (or drupe-like nut), the outer covering of the fruit is an involucre - in a drupe the covering would be derived from the carpel.[11]

Persian walnut (Juglans regia) seeds

The nut kernels of all the species are edible, but the walnuts most commonly traded are from the J. regia, the only species which has a large nut and thin shell. J. nigra kernels are also produced commercially in the US.

Two-thirds of the world export market[12][13] and 99% of US walnuts are grown in California's Central Valley and in Coastal Valleys, from Redding in the north to Bakersfield in the south.[14] Of the more than 30 varieties of J. regia grown there, Chandler and Hartley account for over half of total production.[13] In California commercial production, the Hinds' black walnut (J. hindsii) and the hybrid between J. hindsii and J. regia, Juglans x paradox, are widely used as rootstocks for J. regia cultivars because of their resistance to Phytophthora and to a very limited degree, the oak root fungus. However, trees grafted on these rootstocks often succumb to black line.[15]

In some countries, immature nuts in their husks are preserved in vinegar. In the UK, these are called pickled walnuts and this is one of the major uses for fresh nuts from the small scale plantings. In Armenian cuisine, unripe walnuts, including husks, are preserved in sugar syrup and eaten whole. In Italy, liqueurs called Nocino and Nocello are flavoured with walnuts, while Salsa di Noci (walnut sauce) is a pasta sauce originating from Liguria. In Georgia, walnuts are ground with other ingredients to make walnut sauce.

Walnuts are heavily used in India. In Jammu, it is used widely as a prasad (offering) to Mother Goddess Vaisnav Devi and, generally, as a dry food in the season of festivals such as Diwali.

The nuts are rich in oil, and are widely eaten both fresh and in cookery. Walnut oil is expensive and consequently is used sparingly; most often in salad dressings. Walnut oil has been used in oil paint, as an effective binding medium, known for its clear, glossy consistency and nontoxicity.

Manos and Stone studied the composition of seed oils from several species of the Rhoipteleaceae and Juglandaceae and found the nut oils were generally more unsaturated from species which grow in the temperate zones and more saturated for species which grow in the tropical zones.[16] In the northerly-growing section Trachycaryon, J. cinerea oil was reported to contain 15% linolenate (the report did not specify whether the linolenate was the alpha (n-3) or gamma (n-6) isomer, or perhaps a mixture), 2% of saturated palmitate, and a maximum concentration of 71% linoleate. In the section Juglans, J. regia nut oil was found to contain from 10% to 11% linolenate, 6% to 7% palmitate, and a maximum concentration of linoleate (62% to 68%). In the section Cardiocaryon, the nut oils of J. ailantifolia and J. mandshurica were reported to contain (respectively) 7% and 5% of linolenate, 2% of palmitate, and maximum concentrations of 74% and 79% linoleate. Within the section Rhysocaryon, the nut oils of the U.S. native black walnuts J. microcarpa and J. nigra were reported to contain (respectively) 7% and 3% linolenate, 4% and 3% palmitate, and 70% and 69% linoleate. The remaining results for black walnuts were: J. australis contained 2% linolenate, 7% palmitate, and 61% linoleate; J. boliviana contained 4% linolenate, 4% palmitate, and 70% linoleate; J. hirsuta contained 2% linolenate, 5% palmitate, and 75% linoleate; J. mollis contained 0% linolenate, 5% palmitate, 46% linoleate, and 49% oleate; J. neotropica contained 3% linolenate, 5% palmitate, and 50% linoleate; and J. olanchana contained only a trace of linolenate, 9% palmitate, and 73% linoleate;

The shells of walnuts

The walnut shell has a wide variety of uses. Eastern black walnut (J. nigra) shell is the hardest of the walnut shells, and therefore has the highest resistance to breakdown.

Cleansing and polishing

Walnut shells are mostly used to clean soft metals, fiberglass, plastics, wood and stone. This environmentally friendly and recyclable soft grit abrasive is well suited for air blasting, deburring, descaling, and polishing operations because of its elasticity and resilience. Uses include cleaning automobile and jet engines, electronic circuit boards, and paint and graffiti removal. For example: In the early days of jet transportation, crushed walnut shells were used to scour the compressor airfoils clean, but when engines with air cooled vanes and blades in the turbine started being manufactured, this practice was stopped because the crushed shells tended to plug up the cooling passages to the turbine, resulting in turbine failures due to overheating.

Oil well drilling

The shell is used widely in oil well drilling for lost circulation material in making and maintaining seals in fracture zones and unconsolidated formations.

Flour

Flour from walnut shells is widely used in the plastics industry.

Paint thickener

Walnut shells are added to paint to give it a thicker consistency for "plaster effect" ranges.

Explosives

Used as a filler in dynamite

Cosmetic cleaner

Occasionally used in soap and exfoliating cleansers

Staining from handling walnuts with husks

Walnut husks are often used to create a rich yellow-brown to dark brown dye used for dyeing fabric, yarn or wood and for other purposes. The dye does not require a mordant and will readily stain the hand if picked without gloves.

Walnut shoot cut longitudinally to show chambered pith, scale in mm

The common walnut, and the black walnut and its allies, are important for their attractive timber, which is hard, dense, tight-grained and polishes to a very smooth finish. The color is dark chocolate or similar in the heartwood changing by a sharp boundary to creamy white in the sapwood. When kiln-dried, walnut wood tends toward a dull brown color, but when air-dried can become a rich purplish-brown. Because of its color, hardness and grain, it is a prized furniture and carving wood. Walnut burls (or "burrs" in Europe) are commonly used to create bowls and other turned pieces. The grain figure exposed when a crotch (fork) in a walnut log is cut in the plane of its one entering branch and two exiting branches is attractive and sought after. Veneer sliced from walnut burl is one of the most valuable and highly prized by cabinet makers and prestige car manufacturers. Walnut wood has been the timber of choice for gun makers for centuries, including the Gewehr 98 and Lee–Enfield rifles of the First World War. It remains one of the most popular choices for rifle and shotgun stocks, and is generally considered to be the premium – as well as the most traditional – wood for gun stocks, due to its resilience to compression along the grain. Walnut is also used in lutherie and for the body of pipe organs. The wood of the butternut and related Asian species is of much lower value, softer, coarser, less strong and heavy, and paler in colour.

Freshly sawed walnut heartwood may be greenish in color, but with exposure to air this color quickly changes to brown due to oxidation of the pigment.

In North America, forestry research has been undertaken mostly on J. nigra, aiming to improve the quality of planting stock and markets. In some areas of the US, black walnut is the most valuable commercial timber species.[17] The Walnut Council[18] is the key body linking growers with scientists. In Europe, various EU-led scientific programmes have studied walnut growing for timber.[19]

The Cherokee Indians would produce a black dye from walnut bark, which they used to dye cloth.[20] As early as the 2nd century CE, shells and kernels of the edible walnut were used to make a dye solution in the Levant.[21][22]

Walnuts are very attractive trees in parks and large gardens. Walnut trees are easily propagated from the nuts. Seedlings grow rapidly on good soils.[17] The Japanese walnut in particular is known for its huge leaves, which have a tropical appearance.

Walnut tree in a garden

As garden trees, they have some drawbacks, in particular the falling nuts, and the releasing of the allelopathic compound juglone, though a number of gardeners do grow them.[23][24] However, different walnut species vary in the amount of juglone they release from the roots and fallen leaves - J. nigra, in particular, is known for its toxicity, both to plants and horses.[25] Juglone is toxic to plants such as tomato, apple, and birch, and may cause stunting and death of nearby vegetation. Juglone appears to be one of the walnut's primary defence mechanisms against potential competitors for resources (water, nutrients and sunlight), and its effects are felt most strongly inside the tree's "drip line" (the circle around the tree marked by the horizontal distance of its outermost branches). However, even plants at a seemingly great distance outside the drip line can be affected, and juglone can linger in the soil for several years even after a walnut is removed as its roots slowly decompose and release juglone into the soil.

Walnut species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. These include:

• Brown-tail moth (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)
• Coleophora case-bearers (moths) C. laticornella (recorded on J. nigra) and C. pruniella.
• Common emerald (a geometer moth) (Hemithea aestivaria)
• Small emperor moth (Pavonia pavonia)
• The engrailed (a geometer moth) (Ectropis crepuscularia)
• Walnut sphinx moth (Amorpha juglandis)
• The bride (a moth) (Catocala neogama) – nominate subspecies on butternut and others, C. n. euphemia on Arizona black walnut, perhaps Texas black walnut and others.

The nuts are consumed by other animals, such as mice and squirrels.

In California (US) and Switzerland, crows have been witnessed taking walnuts into their beaks, flying up to 60 feet or so in the air, and dropping them to the ground to crack the shells and eat the nut inside.[26]

The genus Juglans is divided into four sections.[28]

Section	Description	Image	Name	Common Name	Subspecies	Distribution
Section Cardiocaryon	Leaves are very large (40–90 cm), with 11–19 broad leaflets, softly downy, margins serrated. The wood is soft, and the fruits borne in racemes of up to 20. The nuts have thick shells. Native to northeast Asia.		J. ailantifolia Carr. (J. cordiformis Maxim., J. sieboldiana Maxim.)	Japanese walnut	J. ailantifolia var. cordiformis – Heartnut	Japan and Sakhalin
			J. mandshurica Maxim. (J. cathayensis Dode, J. formosana Hayata, J. hopeiensis Dode, J. stenocarpa Maxim.)	Manchurian walnut or Chinese walnut		China, Russian Far East, North Korea and South Korea
Section Juglans	Leaves are large (20–45 cm), with 5–9 broad leaflets, hairless, margins entire. The wood is hard. Native to southeast Europe to central Asia.		J. regia L. (J. duclouxiana Dode, J. fallax Dode, J. orientis Dode)	common walnut, Persian, English, or Carpathian walnut		Balkans eastward to the Himalayas and southwest China
			J. sigillata Dode	iron walnut (doubtfully distinct from J. regia)		Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Xizang in China
Section Rhysocaryon (black walnuts)	Leaves are large (20–50 cm), with 11–23 slender leaflets, finely pubescent, margins serrated. The wood can be extremely hard (Brazilian walnut Janka hardness test of 3684). Native to North America and South America.		J. australis Griseb. (J. brasiliensis Dode)	Argentine walnut, Brazilian walnut		Argentina (including the provinces of Tucumán, Salta and Jujuy) and in Bolivia
			J. boliviana (C. DC.) Dode	Bolivian walnut, Peruvian walnut		Andes of northern Bolivia and central and southern Peru
			J. californica S.Wats.	California black walnut		southern California Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges, and the Central Valley
			J. hindsii (Jepson) R.E.Smith	Hinds' black walnut		Northern California
			J. hirsuta Manning	Nuevo León walnut		Mexico.
			J. jamaicensis C.DC. (J. insularis Griseb.)	West Indies walnut		Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico
			J. major (Torrey) Heller (J. arizonica Dode, J. elaeopyron Dode, J. torreyi Dode)	Arizona black walnut	J. major var. glabrata Manning	Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah
			J. microcarpa Berlandier (J. rupestris Engelm.)	Texas black walnut	J. microcarpa var. microcarpa J. microcarpa var. stewartii (Johnston) Manning	Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
			J. mollis Engelm.	Mexican walnut		Mexico
			J. neotropica Diels (J. honorei Dode)	Andean walnut, cedro negro, cedro nogal, nogal, nogal Bogotano		Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
			J. nigra L.	Eastern black walnut		southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central Texas.
			J. olanchana Standl. & L.O.Williams	cedro negro, nogal, walnut	J. olanchana var. olanchana J. olanchana var. standleyi	Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua
			J. soratensis Manning			Bolivia
			J. steyermarkii Manning	Guatemalan walnut		departamento de Huehuetenango, Guatemala
			J. venezuelensis Manning	Venezuelan walnut		Venezuela
Section Trachycaryon	Leaves are very large (40–90 cm), with 11–19 broad leaflets, softly downy, margins serrated. The wood is soft. Fruits are borne in clusters of two to three. The nuts have a thick, rough shell bearing distinct, sharp ridges. Native to eastern North America.		J. cinerea L.	Butternut		New Brunswick, and from southern Quebec west to Minnesota, south to northern Alabama and southwest to northern Arkansas

The best-known member of the genus is the Persian walnut (J. regia, literally "royal walnut"), native from the Balkans in southeast Europe, southwest and central Asia to the Himalaya and southwest China. Walnuts are a traditional feature of Iranian cuisine; the nation has extensive orchards which are an important feature of regional economies. In Kyrgyzstan alone, there are 230,700 ha of walnut-fruit forest, where J. regia is the dominant overstory tree (Hemery and Popov 1998). In non-European English-speaking nations, the nut of the J. regia is often called the "English walnut"; in Great Britain, the "common walnut."

The eastern black walnut (J. nigra) is a common species in its native eastern North America, and is also widely cultivated elsewhere. The nuts are edible, and though they are often used in expensive baked goods, the Persian walnut is preferred for everyday use because it is easier to extract the nutmeat. The wood is particularly valuable.

The Hinds' black walnut (J. hindsii) is native to northern California, where it has been widely used commercially as a rootstock for J. regia trees. Hinds' black walnut shells do not have the deep grooves characteristic of the eastern black walnut.

Japanese walnut foliage and nuts

The Japanese walnut (J. ailantifolia) is similar to butternut, distinguished by the larger leaves up to 90 cm long, and round (not oval) nuts. The variety cordiformis, often called the heartnut has heart-shaped nuts; the common name of this variety is the source of the sectional name Cardiocaryon.

The butternut (J. cinerea) is also native to eastern North America, where it is currently endangered by an introduced disease, butternut canker, caused by the fungus Sirococcus clavigignenti-juglandacearum. Its leaves are 40–60 cm long, the fruits are oval, the shell has very tall, very slender ridges, and the kernel is especially high in fat.

• J. × bixbyi Rehd.—J. ailantifolia x J. cinerea
• J. × intermedia Carr.—J. nigra x J. regia
• J. × notha Rehd.—J. ailantifolia x J. regia
• J. × quadrangulata (Carr.) Rehd.—J. cinerea x J. regia
• J. × sinensis (D. C.) Rehd.—J. mandschurica x J. regia
• J. × paradox Burbank—J. hindsii x J. regia
• J. × royal Burbank—J. hindsii x J. nigra

A study[29] of sequenced nuclear DNA from the external transcribed spacer (ETS) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA), the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of rDNA, and the second intron of the LEAFY gene taken from at least one individual of most of the species of Juglans has supported several conclusions:

• The genus Juglans is monophyletic;
• Sect. Cardiocaryon is sister to Sect. Trachycaryon;
• Sect. Juglans is sister to Sect. Cardiocaryon and Sect. Trachycaryon together;
• Sect. Rhysocaryon is monophyletic and sister to Sect. Juglans, Sect. Cardiocaryon, and Sect. Trachycaryon together;
• Sect. Rhysocaryon, the black walnuts, contains two clades:
  • one comprises the more northerly species J. californica, J. hindsii, J. hirsuta, J. major, J. microcarpa, and J. nigra;
  • the other comprises the more southerly species J. australis, J. boliviana, J. jamaicensis, J. molis, J. neotropica, J. olanchana, J. steyermarkii, and J. venezuelensis
• J. olanchana var. standleyi seems to be more closely related to J. steyermarkii than to J. olanchana var. olanchana, suggesting J. olanchana var. standleyi might be better understood as either a separate species or a variety of J. steyermarkii.

The paper presenting these results did not publish any new names for the subdivisions of sect. Rhysocaryon, for any combinations of the other sections, or for J. olanchana var. standleyi.