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Buffalo nut

Pyrularia pubera

Also called Oilnut

Buffalo nut
Photo: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possession, Public domain

Buffalo nut (Pyrularia pubera) is a small shrub native to the eastern United States, mostly found in the Appalachian Mountains, that grows in shade and is a root hemiparasite on other plants. It is rarely grown in gardens, and its key requirement is a suitable host plant nearby rather than typical care.

Family
Cervantesiaceae (Cervantesi family)
Grows as
Tree, Shrub
Light
Part shade, Shade
Water
Grows wild in moist woodland; keep the soil moist but not waterlogged while establishing.
Soil
Moist, well-drained woodland soil, ideally with a nearby host plant.
Temperature
Hardy in temperate eastern North America; tolerates cold winters.
How easy
Hard
Native range
E. U.S.A.
Climate
temperate

About

Pyrularia pubera is a shrub in the sandalwood family which grows through the eastern United States from New York to Alabama, being mostly found in the Appalachian Mountains. It is commonly referred to as buffalo nut or oil nut. It grows up to 4 meters (13 ft) tall mostly in the shade of other trees. It is a parasitic plant, specifically a hemiparasite which while still photosynthetic, will also parasitize the roots of other plants around it. It can parasitize many hosts.

Other Pyrularia plants

Pyrularia edulis · Pyrularia

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pyrularia pubera by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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