Common name: Japanese Walnut, Heartnut
Juglans ailantifolia Carrière APNI* Synonyms: Juglans ailanthifolia APNI*
Description: Broad-crowned deciduous tree to c. 15 m high; shoots with glandular hairs; bark light grey, eventually splitting into ridges or plates.
Leaves pinnate, to 90 cm long; petiole and rachis densely glandular pubescent; leaflets (9)11–17, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-obovate, 6–18 cm long, 3–8 cm wide, uniform in size or median leaflets largest, apex acute to acuminate, base obliquely truncate or subcordate, serrulate with teeth often sparse, usually glabrescent above, lower surface densely hairy with simple and stellate hairs on the veins and midrib glandular.
Male catkin to c. 15 cm long, with glandular hairs.
Fruiting spike with 9–22 nuts. Nuts spherical, 2.5–5 cm longl; husk green, viscid, tomentose, ferrugineus. Shell beaked.
Distribution and occurrence: Cultivated as an ornamental tree; one cultivar ('Heartnut') cultivated for its edible nuts. Recorded once as naturalising at Mount Irvine in the Blue Mountains and near Port Macquarie. Also naturalized in New Zealand. Native to Japan.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CT
The specific epithet 'ailantifolia' alludes to similarity with the leaves of Ailanthus altissima (Tree of Heaven). It is sometimes misspelled as 'ailanthifolia'.
Text by KL Wilson June 2008; edited Dec 2010; edited SF McCune Oct 2021.
Taxon concept:
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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