Plant · P-039

Pecan

Carya illinoinensis

Pecan is a giant hickory whose sweet, oil-rich nut is eaten raw, pressed for oil, or ground into a milk once used to thicken soups and season corn cakes. It wants a long, humid, hot summer to ripen a crop and a deep, well-drained soil with steady moisture - trees on poor or shallow ground are the ones that struggle. It is strongly tap-rooted and resents being moved, so it is usually planted where it will stand for good, and growers plant a second tree of a different variety nearby to fill out pollination even though a single tree can produce both sexes. Squirrels, deer and a long list of birds all work the nuts and browse, and a mature tree can carry two hundred kilograms of nuts in a good year, with a lighter crop the year after.