Butternut

Juglans cinerea

tree

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), also called white walnut, is a native nut tree of the cool North, a spreading tree of 40 to 60 ft with sweet, oily, deeply ridged nuts inside a sticky green husk. It is hardier than most walnuts and short-lived for the genus, seldom passing 75 years. Sadly it has become rare in the wild from butternut canker, a usually fatal fungal disease, so home growers should seek canker-resistant or hybrid stock and plant deliberately. Like its walnut relatives it produces juglone that suppresses many nearby plants.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Currant — A juglone-tolerant fruiting shrub for the partial shade near the tree
• Black Raspberry — Handles walnut-family juglone better than most brambles
• Clover — A juglone-tolerant nitrogen-fixing groundcover for the open soil

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Butternut canker →

  The disease that threatens the species; plant resistant or hybrid stock, keep trees vigorous, and prune out and destroy sunken, dark, oozing cankers

• Walnut husk fly →

  Maggots stain the husks; rake up and destroy fallen nuts and hulls to break the cycle

• Bark beetles →

  Attack weakened trees and can vector disease; remove dead and stressed wood and keep trees healthy

🌾 Harvest & storage

Butternuts ripen in fall and drop in their sticky, hairy green husks; gather them promptly off the ground. Wear gloves, as the husks stain deeply. Remove the husks, wash the nuts, and cure them in an airy, shaded spot for a couple of weeks. The shells are hard and the kernels deeply lobed, so cracking takes effort, but the rich, sweet, oily flavor rewards it. Cured in-shell nuts keep for months in a cool place.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Butternuts are among the sweetest, oiliest of the native nuts, traditionally eaten out of hand, in baking, and in maple-butternut candy, and high in healthy fats. The green husks were once used as a dye. Remember the juglone: keep tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons out of the root zone, and the tree will be a fine, cold-hardy native shade and nut tree.