Heartnuts for Health and Horticulture

How about heartnuts for Valentines? A natural mutation of the Japanese walnut (synonym Juglans sieboldiana), heartnut, Juglans ailantifolia var. cordiformis, is hardier than the more familiar English or Persian walnut (J. regia), certainly up to the southern Great Lakes region. There the climate is similar to its native Japan and the Sakhalin area of southeastern Russia. Not only do the small- to medium-size trees produce delicious nuts but they are highly ornamental, with huge leaves divided into numerous leaflets, attractive catkins in late spring and long racemes of nuts in early fall.

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Better yet, as with other nuts (including peanuts), eating heartnuts is an excellent way to a long, healthful life. “The already-growing reputation of nuts is now shining even more brightly: Researchers have linked eating nuts with longer survival,” writes Nathan Seppa in Science News, adding that “the findings nudge nut consumption a step closer toward the rarified circle of activities shown to fend of the reaper.” Data from two long-term studies extending over three decades revealed various lifestyle aspects of almost 120,000 female nurses and male health professionals. Those consuming 28 grams or more of nuts several times a week were 13 percent less likely to die during the studies, researchers reported in a recent New England Journal of Medicine.

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While in milder areas, the trees may attain a mature height of 30-metres, half that is more common in its northern ranges with a slightly wider spread. Although trees grown from seed will produce attractive ornamental specimens, the only reliable nut bearers come from grafted specimens, as with virtually all orchard trees. Incidentally heartnuts, like other walnuts, botanically are not nut trees at all but bear drupes: a fleshy outer layer concealing an inner “nut.” Heartnut trees flourish in sand and clay loams with a pH 6 to 7, soil conditions common much of the Great Lakes area. There they can gain as much as a metre a season, with grafted trees commencing to bear in one to three years. The Southern Ontario Nut Growers (SONG) website is an excellent source of further information. Heartnut trees may be ordered from Grimo Nut Farm in the Niagara Peninsular for delivery at the recommended planting time in April/May. As with apples, pears and sweet cherries, heartnut trees are only partially self-pollinating so two different varieties should be planted – a sort of Valentines his-and-hers arrangement.

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