Above one of our pignut hickories, of the CARYA GLABRA-OVALIS complex, is shown unfurling its compound leaves. Each leaf bears five or seven leaflets. A pretty thing that hickories do when spring's leaf-bearing stems emerge from a twig's terminal buds like this is that the former buds' inner scales enlarge tremendously, becoming fleshy and colored. You can see such pink, inner scales in the picture curling back at the base of the vertical new stem. There's a special botanical word describing things that enlarge after flowering or after something has emerged from its bud, and that's "accrescent." A hickory's inner bud scales are beautifully accrescent.

This pignut hickory's accrescent inner bud scales are about two inches long. Hickories with heavier stems and bigger buds, such as Shagbarks and Mockernuts, produce even larger overwintering buds with accrescent inner bud scales growing well over three inches long.

Of what use are a hickory's accrescent inner bud scales? I'm guessing that they might distract caterpillars climbing their stems looking for succulent leaves by offering fleshy meals of non- photosynthesizing and thus non-critical tissue, but that's only a guess.