Butternut

Sweet, buttery nuts with a milder flavor than black walnut make butternut a treasured native for northern growers. Long compound leaves and a broad, open crown lend it a bold, almost tropical look. Homesteads, woodlots, and reforestation projects benefit from both its food and its habitat value. Squirrels prize the nuts as much as people do. Plant seed directly where the tree will grow or in deep pots that protect the long taproot, and guard sown nuts from digging rodents over winter.