pignut hickory

Carya glabra · Juglandaceae · all Carya records · Wikipedia

Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Yes, pignut hickory is rated fire resistant, with five regional assessments placing it in their recommended categories.

The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs rate it Firewise 1 on their four-step scale. North Carolina’s extension services call it low flammability in both their 2005 and 2025 guidance. The L ratings from Ohio State University Extension and Virginia Cooperative Extension use different scales: five points in Ohio and three in Virginia. Although the systems differ, each rating falls within that source’s recommendation range.

A separate combustibility test measured a flame height of 72.6 centimeters from predried pignut hickory litter on a burning bench. That figure describes the litter’s flame height under the test conditions. The FLAMITS database preserves such measurements without setting a common threshold that classifies them as resistant or hazardous, so the number is not itself a verdict about the tree.

Pignut hickory’s small nuts are edible, and Ohio State University Extension notes that it tolerates varied soils and construction. Allow for a mature height of about 50 feet when choosing a full-sun spot with moderate water. This Juglandaceae tree is hardy to USDA zone 5a. Taken together, the regional guidance consistently supports its fire-resistant classification.

Form: tree
Mature height: ~50 ft
Light: Full sun
Water need: moderate
Rated in: Global; NC; North Carolina; Ohio / Midwest +2

On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: 1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence: 1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Global; NC; North Carolina; Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Maintenance

Typed publication scope: 3 scopes across 3 cited fire sources

Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina (AG-874) · Official scoped edition
- NC; complete normalized coverage · 2025-03-26
  The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.
Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01
  Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WV.
Native range: Current cited native range in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 4a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

32

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

32 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Alabama (AL)
Arkansas (AR)
Connecticut (CT)
District of Columbia (DC)
Delaware (DE)
Florida (FL)
Georgia (GA)
Iowa (IA)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Kansas (KS)
Kentucky (KY)
Louisiana (LA)
Massachusetts (MA)
Maryland (MD)
Michigan (MI)
Missouri (MO)
Mississippi (MS)
North Carolina (NC)
New Hampshire (NH)
New Jersey (NJ)
New York (NY)
Ohio (OH)
Pennsylvania (PA)
Rhode I. (RI)
South Carolina (SC)
Tennessee (TN)
Texas (TX)
Virginia (VA)
Vermont (VT)
Wisconsin (WI)
West Virginia (WV)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record carya-glabra · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Carya glabra · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record CAGL8 · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 4a · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: -30°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Carya glabra · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 70594, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

dead material: FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database evidence row (condition method), FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database evidence row (condition method), FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database evidence row (condition method), FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database evidence row (condition method), FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database evidence row (condition method)

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Listed without a rating (9)

Corroboration (9 rows from 1 source)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

9 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- Primary study Varner2021: Varner, J. M., Kane, J. M., Kreye, J. K., & Shearman, T. M. (2021). Litter Flammability of 50 Southeastern North American Tree Species: Evidence for Mesophication Gradients Across Multiple Ecosystems. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, 727042. Primary-study method: freshly fallen litter was oven-dried at 50–60°C for at least 24 hours to constant mass; each trial used a 15 g dry litter fuelbed, with five to seven trials per species.
  
  Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2021-1; sampling ND.
  - Shared measurement context: Combustibility measurement.
    - “flame height (cm): 72.6” · condition: dead material · condition method: Materials and Methods, Laboratory Burning
      
      FLAMITS record 13593.
    - “flame intensity (kW/m): 282” · condition: dead material · condition method: Materials and Methods, Laboratory Burning
      
      FLAMITS record 13597.
  - Shared measurement context: Sustainability measurement.
    - “flaming duration (s): 31.1” · condition: dead material · condition method: Materials and Methods, Laboratory Burning
      
      FLAMITS record 13594.
    - “smouldering duration (s): 152.3” · condition: dead material · condition method: Materials and Methods, Laboratory Burning
      
      FLAMITS record 13595.
  - “burnt biomass (%): 87.4” · condition: dead material · condition method: Materials and Methods, Laboratory Burning
    
    FLAMITS record 13596; Consumability measurement.
- Primary study Kreye2023: Kreye, J. K., Kane, J. M., & Varner, J. M. (2023). Multivariate roles of litter traits on moisture and flammability of temperate northeastern North American tree species. Fire Ecology, 19, 1-12.
  
  Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel live; predrying no; device burning bench; site Kreye2023-1; sampling ND.
  - “flame height (cm): 59”
    
    FLAMITS record 18724; Combustibility measurement.
  - “time to flaming (s): 43”
    
    FLAMITS record 18725; Ignitability measurement.
  - “smouldering duration (s): 186”
    
    FLAMITS record 18726; Sustainability measurement.
  - “burnt biomass (%): 82”
    
    FLAMITS record 18727; Consumability measurement.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

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Carya glabra (Pignut hickory). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/carya-glabra/. Last verified 2026-08-23.