Behind the tent I was helping to man at the Journée de la Forêt de Soignes yesterday stood a walnut tree. But there were some things not quite right about it to be one of the familiar 𝐽𝑢𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑠. Sure, the leaves looked right, the ground beneath was bare, yet it was thriving by and even in water, beside the Étang de la Longue Queue in the grounds of Château de la Hulpe.
Although neither 𝐽𝑢𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑎, our familiar table nut nor 𝐽𝑢𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑛𝑖𝑔𝑟𝑎, a far more recent arrival from North America are truly native here, this one was quite different.
It certainly is a cousin, belonging in the walnut family Juglandaceae, but produces winged nuts from those long racemes you can see hanging down. And it loves water. It will even produce new growth from submerged branches, rather like a mangrove.
This is the Caucasian wingnut 𝑃𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑎, from the same broad region as our familiar walnut.
Ptero, like pterodactyl, winged. Carya, nut. Fraxinus, ash. Folia, leaves.
A winged nut with ash-like leaves.
It lives up to its name.