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August 14, 2010 7:58 PM   Subscribe

What is this mystery nut?

This botanical specimen was taken out of the kitchen sink outflow pipe at a friend's house, where it had been blocking up the water. He says it's about an inch across and had probably been there for years.

We're in Quebec, although I doubt whether this is a native botanical specimen. I've never seen anything with that tripartite form before.
posted by zadcat to Science & Nature (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: black walnut
posted by cosmicbandito at 7:59 PM on August 14, 2010


Black walnut is good. But I would call it bipartite.
Here is an image of a nut :
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/JPEG%27S/Plant%2520Web%2520Images/BlackWalnutInShell.2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/BlackWalnut.html&usg=__iiG2m6CWZcXfeAF-K2SBgBJ7cw8=&h=304&w=370&sz=28&hl=en&start=20&tbnid=s1qzrhGmRIZU1M:&tbnh=127&tbnw=161&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522black%2Bwalnut%2522%2Bnut%2Bpicture%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1021%26bih%3D701%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C630&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=693&ei=61lnTMiPL4r2tgOr6t2oDQ&oei=5llnTIyJCYj2tgPh_53mBQ&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:20&tx=65&ty=92&biw=1021&bih=701
posted by llc at 8:10 PM on August 14, 2010


llc's link, in, er, link form
posted by axiom at 8:13 PM on August 14, 2010


Agreed, black walnut. The hulls make a mean natural dye for wool.
posted by Miko at 8:16 PM on August 14, 2010


Response by poster: Black walnut is tripartite like my photo?
posted by zadcat at 8:23 PM on August 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It looks like Chile walnuts have three valves instead of two.
posted by Madamina at 9:21 PM on August 14, 2010


Best answer: Well, after Googling around I would say that chile walnut could be a suspect - there is a good drawing of one here showing three-part hull. It is closely related. But the outer coating really looks black-walnutty to me. Black walnuts are exceedlingly variable internally, and I've never found that their hulls cleave neatly into two - they are the devil to open. The 'expect horses' answer is definitely the widely distributed black walnut, but if you find that black walnuts never occur with three lobes, then chile walnut is a likely suspect.
posted by Miko at 12:16 PM on August 15, 2010


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