Common Walnut

The English or Persian walnut is found wild and cultivated in the Himalayas from 1000—3300 m alt. s. m. Ssp. fallax (Dode) Popov in Bull. App. Bot. 22, 3:204. 1929 (Juglans fallax Dode in Bull. Soc. Dendr. Fr. 89. 1906) is probably the form that occurs here. Valued for its wood and edible fruit; the wood is excellent for furniture, carving and for gun stocks; the bark is good for the gums and in the local market it is sold under the name of ‘dandasa’. It is also used as a vermi¬fuge and for staining; the leaves are used as fodder. The seed yields an oil used in cooking. The ‘kaghzi’ variety of walnut (Juglans doucloxiana of Dode) is valued for its thin shelled edible fruit.

Commonly cultivated in China from 23-42° N for its edible, oily nuts and hard, fine grained wood. Juglans regia has a very long history of cultivation in China and elsewhere; as a result, there are many cultivars, including five Chinese taxa that L.-A. Dode (Bull. Soc. Dendrol. France 2: 67-98. 1906), recognized on the basis of differences in shell thickness, size, etc.

Deciduous tree up to 25 m tall. Young shoots tomentose. Leaves impa¬ripinnate, 17-40 cm long; leaflets 5-9, softly tomentose, opposite to sub-opposite, 7-20 cm long, 3-8 cm broad, ovate to elliptic-ovate, acute to acuminate, glab¬rescent to pubescent on nerves beneath; petiolule 2-4 mm long. Male catkins 6-12 cm long, lateral; bract c. 2 mm long; bracteoles 2, c. 3 nun long, ovate to obovate, pubescent; tepals 4, ovate, c. 2 mm long; stamens 10-20, subsessile; anthers 2 mm long, irregularly apiculate, basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers 1-3, terminal on short spikes; involucral tube of fused bract and bracteoles, c. 3.5 mm long, tomentose, glandular, obscurely 4-toothed and irregular at the margin; tepals 4, linear, 2.5-4 mm long, alternating with the teeth; margin sparsely pubescent; ovary c. 3.5 mm long, ovoid, inferior; style c. 2 mm long; stigmas 2, recurved, plumose to fimbriate, exserted. Drupe up to 5 cm long, ovoid to subglobose; epicarp green, glandular; endocarp 2-valved; seed 2 to 4-lobed at the base.

Trees to 25 m tall. Leaves 25-30 cm; petiole 5-7 cm; petiole and rachis glabrescent, without glandular hairs; leaflets (3 or)5-9, entire on mature trees, sometimes obscurely serrulate on young plants; lateral leaflets subsessile or petiolule 1-2 mm, blade elliptic-ovate to long elliptic, 6-15 × 3-6 cm, abaxially glabrous except for tufts of hairs in vein axils, without glandular hairs, base oblique, subrounded, apex obtuse or acute to shortly acuminate; terminal petiolule 2.5-6 cm. Male spike 5-10(-15) cm. Stamens 6-30(-40). Fruiting spike usually with 1-3(-38) nuts. Nuts subglobose, 4-6 cm; husk glabrous, irregularly dehiscent; shell thick except in commercial varieties, wrinkled. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Oct. 2n = 32.

Distribution: C. America, SE. Europe, Caucasus, Syria, N. Iran, Afghanistan, W. Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, W. China and Upper Burma.

Widely distributed in C, E, NW, and SW China [SW Asia to Himalayas, SE Europe]

Fl. Per. February-April.

Mountain slopes; 500-1800(-4000) m.

Juglans duclouxiana Dode; J. fallax Dode; J. kamaonia (C. de Candolle) Dode; J. orientis Dode; J. regia var. sinensis C. de Candolle; J. sinensis (C. de Candolle) Dode.