Very large deciduous tree, up to 60 ft tall or more. Mature trees have shaggy bark, but young trees have smooth bark. Leaves are about 1 to 2 feet long and alternate on the branches. They are compound, with one end leaflet, and other leaflets opposite each other. There are usually 5, rarely 3 or 7 leaflets total. The lowest 2 leaflets much smaller than the other three. Flowers rarely seen, being high in the tree. Male flowers are catkins, female flowers on the tips of short stalks, neither are showy. Fruit a nut, in a hard shell surrounded by a thick 4-part husk that splits open when the nut falls in the fall.

Native to much of the eastern US. Common in the Park forests.

The leaves and mature bark are distinctive among the trees known from the Park. Bitternut hickory usually has 7 to 11 leaflets, and the nut has a thin husk.