The walnut tree is any of the 20 species from the genus Juglans. The Latin name derives from Jovis glans, Jupiter's acorns, that is, acorns with a divine taste.
You can hardly find any other tree that cares less about how it looks. It is among the last to get dressed in foliage in spring and one of the first to shed leaves in autumn. When they fall off, the leaves are gloomy brown colour. The walnut has nondescript flowers. Male flowers in the form of catkins and female ones forming inflorescences appear on with the tree at the same time as the leaves.
The most popular representative of the genus in Eurasia is the common walnut (J. regia), while in North America it is the eastern American black walnut (J. nigra).
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Walnut trees can be found growing to the right of the path along the track.
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Common walnut Juglans regia L.
Other names: Persian walnut, English walnut, Carpathian walnut, Madeira walnut
A native of Central Asia, along with the peach and apple, the walnut is considered one of the treasures brought across Europe by the troops of Alexander the Great.
The common walnut is a large tree up to 25 metres high, with a thick spreading crown and deep green leaves.
The tree is monoecious, with male and female flowers appearing on the same tree. They are self-pollinating and do not need a partner. Fruits develop from female flowers and are enclosed in a thick green peel. When the peel breaks, the walnuts fall onto the ground. They are a good food for animals, who also store them for winter. When animals forget where they have hidden the walnuts, the seeds can then give rise to a new tree. A tree can bear fruit for several hundred years.
The ground under walnut trees usually remains quite bare, as they secrete a substance that inhibits the growth of many other plants. As far back as the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder noted: “The shadow of a walnut tree is poison.”
The walnut has always been highly valued not only for its very nutritious fruits, rich in oils and especially B vitamins, but also for its strong, shock-resistant dark brown wood with a beautiful pattern.
The walnut’s green peel contains a large amount of iodine and is good for people suffering from thyroid diseases due to iodine deficiency.
