A medium-sized, very intolerant tree on moist, well-drained sites throughout the eastern U.S. except for northern New England, the southern coastal plain, the Mississippi delta, and the northern Lake States. It is allelopathic, has edible fruit, and the most valuable wood in the U.S. Leaves are 9-23 ovate-lanceolate leaflets with the terminal leaflet often suppressed. Twigs are stout with a buff colored, chambered pith, and 3 u-shaped bundle scars in an obcordate leaf scar. The terminal bud is blunt with few pubescent scales and the laterals often superposed. Fruit is 2" and globose with thick pubescent husk and a corrugated nut with rounded ridges. Bark is dark brown to black, with deep, narrow furrows, often with an interlacing pattern.