Walnut trees grow throughout the Eastern United States, with the main commercial region being the Central states. The average height of a walnut tree is 100 to 150 feet. The roots of the walnut tree release a toxic material which may kill other plants growing above them. From the time of ancient Greeks until well into modern European history, walnuts symbolized fertility and were strewn at weddings. Just the opposite, in Romania, brides who wished to delay childbearing placed into the bodice of their wedding dresses one walnut for each year they hoped to wait.

Walnut is commonly used for furniture, cabinets, architectural millwork, doors, walnut hardwood flooring, paneling, and gun stocks, and is a favored wood for using in contrast with lighter-colored species. It is one of the few American species planted as well as naturally regenerated. The sapwood of walnut is creamy white, while the heartwood is light brown to dark chocolate brown, occasionally with a purplish cast and darker streaks. The wood develops a rich patina that grows more lustrous with age.

Walnut hardwood floors are usually supplied steamed, to darken sapwood. The wood is generally straight-grained, but sometimes with wavy or curly grain that produces an attractive and decorative figure. This species produces a greater variety of figure types than any other. Walnut is a tough hardwood of medium density, with moderate bending and crushing strengths and low stiffness, and has a good steam-bending classification.

See additional hardwood flooring types.