Usually growing in upland mesic areas, but it can grow in wet mesic bottomlands. Its native range is from New Brunswick and along the lower St Lawrence River into most of New England down to northern Alabama & Mississippi into most of Missouri, eastern Iowa, southeast Minnesota central Wisconsin, southern Michigan, and the southeast tip of Ontario. I've never seen it in the wild. I don't think it is as common as formerly due to a canker disease from east Asia that has knocked its numbers down. (Some hybrids with the similar Japanese Butternut have been made for disease resistance). Butternut's compound leaves are 18 to 30 inches long with 11 to 17 leaflets that are larger than those of the Black Walnut and are more fuzzy beneath. The stout twigs have a chambered pith with dark brown lines separating the chambers. The naked buds are downy and tan. The fruit is elliptical football-shaped about 2 to 2.5 inches long and its husk contains a yellow to orange dye that was used to color cloth. The bark is ashy gray and starts smooth to shallow furrowed with wide flat platy ridges. It is fast growing in rich soils of 2 to 3 feet/year and 1 to 2 feet/year in drier soils and it lives about 75 years. It has a much lighter brown wood than Black Walnut. It has a taproot and is difficult to transplant. Some native plant nurseries sell it and some mail order specialty nurseries sell it as a nut tree. I was glad to see a good number of trees growing in the Midwest Collection at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.

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Honey bees get pollen from this plant.

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