Pecan
Encyclopedia
The pecan Carya illinoinensis, is a species of hickory
, native to south-central North America
, in Mexico
from Coahuila
south to Jalisco
and Veracruz
, in the United States
from southern Iowa
, Illinois
, Missouri
, and Indiana
east to western Kentucky
, southwestern Ohio
, North Carolina
, South Carolina
, and western Tennessee
, south through Georgia
, Alabama
, Mississippi
, Louisiana
, Texas
, Oklahoma
, Arkansas
, and Florida
, and west into New Mexico
.
"Pecan" is from an Algonquian
word, meaning a nut
requiring a stone
to crack.
In Mexico, pecans and walnut
s share the same Spanish name, , which is a cognate
of the English word nut
.
The pecan tree is a large deciduous
tree
, growing to 20–40 m (65.6–131.2 ft) in height, rarely to 44 m (144.4 ft); taller trees to 50–55 m (164–180.4 ft) have been claimed but not verified. It typically has a spread of 12–23 m (39.4–75.5 ft) with a trunk up to 2 m (6.6 ft) diameter. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 5 m (16.4 ft) tall. The leaves
are alternate, 30–45 cm (11.8–17.7 in) long, and pinnate
with 9–17 leaflets, each leaflet 5–12 cm (2–4.7 in) long and 2–6 cm (0.78740157480315–2.4 in) broad. The flower
s are wind-pollinated
, and monoecious
, with staminate
and pistillate catkin
s on the same tree; the male catkins are pendulous, up to 18 cm (7.1 in) long; the female catkins are small, with three to six flowers clustered together.
A pecan, like the fruit
of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut, but is technically a drupe
, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower while the part known as the nut
develops from the endocarp and contains the seed
. The nut itself is dark brown, oval to oblong , 2.6–6 cm (1–2.4 in) long and 1.5–3 cm (0.590551181102362–1.2 in) broad. The outer husk is 3–4 mm (0.118110236220472–0.15748031496063 in) thick, starts out green and turns brown at maturity, at which time it splits off in four sections to release the thin-shelled nut.
The nuts of the pecan are edible, with a rich, butter
y flavor. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking
, particularly in sweet dessert
s but also in some savory dishes. One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie
, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline
candy, most often associated with New Orleans
.
In addition to the pecan nut, the wood
is also used in making furniture
, in wood flooring
, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meat
s.
Pecans were one of the most recently domesticated major crops. Although wild pecans were well-known among the colonial America
ns as a delicacy, the commercial growing of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s. Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world's pecans, with an annual crop of 150–200 thousand tons from more than 10 million trees. The nut harvest for growers is typically around mid-October. Historically, the leading pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia
, followed by Texas
, New Mexico
and Oklahoma
; they are also grown in Arizona
, South Carolina
and Hawaii
. Outside the United States, pecans are grown in Australia
, Brazil
, China
, Israel
, Mexico
, Peru
and South Africa
. They can be grown approximately from USDA
hardiness zone
s 5 to 9, provided summers are also hot and humid.
Pecan trees may live and bear edible nuts
for more than three hundred years. They are mostly self-incompatible, because most cultivar
s, being clones
derived from wild trees, show incomplete dichogamy
. Generally, two or more trees of different cultivars must be present to pollinate
each other.
Choosing cultivars can be a complex practice, based on the Alternate Bearing Index and their period of pollinating. Commercial planters are most concerned with the Alternate Bearing Index, which describes a cultivar's likelihood to bear on an alternating years (index of 1.0 signifies highest likelihood of bearing little to nothing every other year). The period of pollination groups all cultivars into two families: those that shed pollen before they can receive pollen (protandrous), and those that shed pollen after becoming receptive to pollen (protogynous). Planting cultivars from both families within 250 feet is recommended for proper pollination.
deficiency
in C. Illinoinensis produces a disorder called mouse-ear in trees fertilized with urea. An enzyme
within the leaves uses nickel during the conversion of urea to ammonia, and a deficiency results in the toxic accumulation of urea. Symptoms of mouse ear include rounded or blunt leaflet tips which produces smaller leaflets, dwarfing of tree organs, poorly developed root systems, rosetting, delayed bud break, loss of apical dominance, and necrosis of leaflet tips. Mouse ear can be treated with foliar sprays of nickel.
A similar condition results from a zinc deficiency, which also can be treated by foliar sprays.
and unsaturated fat
s. Like walnut
s (which pecans resemble), pecans are rich in omega-6 fatty acid
s, although pecans contain about half as much omega-6 as walnuts.
A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstone
s in women. The antioxidant
s and plant sterols
found in pecans reduce high cholesterol
by reducing the "bad" LDL cholesterol
levels.
Clinical research published in the Journal of Nutrition
(September 2001) found that eating about a handful of pecans each day may help lower cholesterol levels similar to what is often seen with cholesterol-lowering medications. Research conducted at the University of Georgia has also confirmed that pecans contain plant sterols, which are known for their cholesterol-lowering ability. Pecans may also play a role in neurological health. Eating pecans daily may delay age-related muscle nerve degeneration, according to a study conducted at the University of Massachusetts and published in Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research.
The Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
from Kiln, Mississippi
has produced a variety of beer
using pecans rather than hops
.
. Differentiation between the subfamilies of Engelhardioideae and Juglandioideae occurred during the early Paleogene
, about 64 million years ago. Extant examples of Engelharioideae are generally tropical and evergreen while those of Juglandioideae are deciduous and found in more temperate zones. The second major step in the development of the pecan was a change from wind dispersed fruits to animal dispersion. This dispersal strategy coincides with the development of a husk around the fruit and a drastic increase in the relative concentrations of fatty acids. The ratio of oleic to linoleic acids are inverted between wind and animal dispersed seeds. Further differentiation from other species of Juglandaceae occurred about 44 million years ago during the Eocene
. The fruits of the pecan genus Carya differ from those of the hickory genus Juglans only in the formation of the husk of the fruit. The husk of walnuts develop from the bracts, bracteoles, and sepals, or sepals only. The husk of pecans develops from the bracts and the bracteoles only.
Pecans first became known to Europeans in the 16th century. The first Europeans to come into contact with pecans were Spanish explorers in what is now Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. The genus Carya does not exist in the Old World. Because of their familiarity with the genus Juglans, these early explorers referred to the nuts as "nogales" and "nueces," the Spanish terms for "walnut tree" and "fruit of the walnut." They noted the particularly thin shell and acorn-like shape of the fruit indicating that they were indeed referring to pecans. The Spaniards brought the pecan into Europe
, Asia
, and Africa
beginning in the 16th century. In 1792 William Bartram
reported in his botanical book, Travels, a nut tree, "Juglans exalata' that some botanists today argue was the American pecan tree, but others argue was hickory, "Carya ovata". Pecan trees are native to the United States, and writing about the pecan tree goes back to the nation's founders. Thomas Jefferson
planted pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis (Illinois nuts), in his nut orchard at his home, Monticello, in Virginia. George Washington
reported in his journal that Thomas Jefferson gave him "Illinois nuts", pecans, which George Washington then grew at Mount Vernon
, his Virginia home.
with growing locations at Brownwood and College Station Texas. While selection work has been done since the late 1800's, most acreage of pecans grown today are of older cultivars such as 'Stuart', 'Schley', 'Desirable', with known flaws but also with known production potential. The long cycle time for pecan trees plus financial considerations dictate that new varieties go through an extensive vetting process before being widely planted. There are numerous examples of varieties that produce well in Texas that fail in the Southeastern U.S. due to increased disease pressure. Selection programs are ongoing at the state level, with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Florida, Missouri and others having trial plantings.
Varieties are available from nurseries that are adapted from the Southern tier of States up through some parts of Iowa and even into southern Canada. Production potential drops significantly when planted further North than Tennessee. Most breeding efforts for Northern adapted varieties have not been on a large enough scale to significantly impact production. Varieties that are available and adapted (e.g., 'Major', 'Martzahn', 'Witte', 'Greenriver', and 'Posey') in zones 6
and further North are almost entirely selections from wild stands. A Northern adapted variety must be grafted onto a northern rootstock to avoid freeze damage.
The pecan is a 32 chromosome species and can hybridize with other 32 chromosome members of the Carya genus
such as Carya ovata, Carya laciniosa, and Carya cordiformis. Most such hybrids are unproductive, though a few second-generation hybrids have potential for producing hickory-flavored nuts with pecan nut structure. Such hybrids are referred to as "hicans
" to indicate their hybrid origin.
.
In southeast Texas, the Texas Pecan Festival is celebrated every year. There is also an annual Pecan Festival in Colfax, Louisiana in the month of November.
Hickory
Trees in the genus Carya are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 17–19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts...
, native to south-central North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
from Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
south to Jalisco
Jalisco
Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...
and Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from southern Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
east to western Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, southwestern Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and western Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, south through Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and west into New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
"Pecan" is from an Algonquian
Algonquin language
Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario...
word, meaning a nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
requiring a stone
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
to crack.
In Mexico, pecans and walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
s share the same Spanish name, , which is a cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
of the English word nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
.
Growth
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
, growing to 20–40 m (65.6–131.2 ft) in height, rarely to 44 m (144.4 ft); taller trees to 50–55 m (164–180.4 ft) have been claimed but not verified. It typically has a spread of 12–23 m (39.4–75.5 ft) with a trunk up to 2 m (6.6 ft) diameter. A 10-year-old sapling will stand about 5 m (16.4 ft) tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are alternate, 30–45 cm (11.8–17.7 in) long, and pinnate
Pinnate
Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...
with 9–17 leaflets, each leaflet 5–12 cm (2–4.7 in) long and 2–6 cm (0.78740157480315–2.4 in) broad. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are wind-pollinated
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
, and monoecious
Plant sexuality
Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
, with staminate
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
and pistillate catkin
Catkin
A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated but sometimes insect pollinated . They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping...
s on the same tree; the male catkins are pendulous, up to 18 cm (7.1 in) long; the female catkins are small, with three to six flowers clustered together.
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut, but is technically a drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower while the part known as the nut
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
develops from the endocarp and contains the seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
. The nut itself is dark brown, oval to oblong , 2.6–6 cm (1–2.4 in) long and 1.5–3 cm (0.590551181102362–1.2 in) broad. The outer husk is 3–4 mm (0.118110236220472–0.15748031496063 in) thick, starts out green and turns brown at maturity, at which time it splits off in four sections to release the thin-shelled nut.
The nuts of the pecan are edible, with a rich, butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
y flavor. They can be eaten fresh or used in cooking
Cooking
Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...
, particularly in sweet dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
s but also in some savory dishes. One of the most common desserts with the pecan as a central ingredient is the pecan pie
Pecan pie
Pecan pie is a sweet pie made primarily of corn syrup and pecan nuts. It is popularly served at holiday meals and is also considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings. Chocolate and bourbon whiskey are other popular additions to the...
, a traditional southern U.S. recipe. Pecans are also a major ingredient in praline
Praline
Praline is a family of confections made from nuts and sugar syrup.-Europe:As originally inspired in France at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the cook of the 17th-century sugar industrialist Marshal du Plessis-Praslin , early pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar,...
candy, most often associated with New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
.
In addition to the pecan nut, the wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
is also used in making furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
, in wood flooring
Wood flooring
Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Bamboo flooring is often considered a wood floor, although it is made from a grass rather than a timber....
, as well as flavoring fuel for smoking meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
s.
Cultivation
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
ns as a delicacy, the commercial growing of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s. Today, the U.S. produces between 80% and 95% of the world's pecans, with an annual crop of 150–200 thousand tons from more than 10 million trees. The nut harvest for growers is typically around mid-October. Historically, the leading pecan-producing state in the U.S. has been Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, followed by Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
; they are also grown in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Outside the United States, pecans are grown in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. They can be grown approximately from USDA
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
hardiness zone
Hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...
s 5 to 9, provided summers are also hot and humid.
Pecan trees may live and bear edible nuts
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
for more than three hundred years. They are mostly self-incompatible, because most cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s, being clones
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
derived from wild trees, show incomplete dichogamy
Dichogamy
Sequential hermaphroditism is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods and plants. Here, the individual is born one sex and changes sex at some point in their life. They can change from a male to female , or from female to male...
. Generally, two or more trees of different cultivars must be present to pollinate
Pollenizer
A pollenizer or polleniser, sometimes pollinizer or polliniser is a plant that provides pollen.In American English, the words pollenizer and pollinator are often confused: A pollinator is the biotic agent that moves the pollen, such as bees, moths, bats, and birds...
each other.
Choosing cultivars can be a complex practice, based on the Alternate Bearing Index and their period of pollinating. Commercial planters are most concerned with the Alternate Bearing Index, which describes a cultivar's likelihood to bear on an alternating years (index of 1.0 signifies highest likelihood of bearing little to nothing every other year). The period of pollination groups all cultivars into two families: those that shed pollen before they can receive pollen (protandrous), and those that shed pollen after becoming receptive to pollen (protogynous). Planting cultivars from both families within 250 feet is recommended for proper pollination.
Diseases
In the southeastern United States, nickelNickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
deficiency
Deficiency
A deficiency is generally a lack of something. It may also refer to:*A deficient number, in mathematics, a number n for which σ A deficiency is generally a lack of something. It may also refer to:...
in C. Illinoinensis produces a disorder called mouse-ear in trees fertilized with urea. An enzyme
Enzyme
Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...
within the leaves uses nickel during the conversion of urea to ammonia, and a deficiency results in the toxic accumulation of urea. Symptoms of mouse ear include rounded or blunt leaflet tips which produces smaller leaflets, dwarfing of tree organs, poorly developed root systems, rosetting, delayed bud break, loss of apical dominance, and necrosis of leaflet tips. Mouse ear can be treated with foliar sprays of nickel.
A similar condition results from a zinc deficiency, which also can be treated by foliar sprays.
Nutrition
Pecans are a good source of proteinProtein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
and unsaturated fat
Unsaturated fat
An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is at least one double bond within the fatty acid chain. A fat molecule is monounsaturated if it contains one double bond, and polyunsaturated if it contains more than one double bond. Where double bonds are formed, hydrogen atoms are...
s. Like walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
s (which pecans resemble), pecans are rich in omega-6 fatty acid
Omega-6 fatty acid
n−6 fatty acids are a family of unsaturated fatty acids that have in common a final carbon–carbon double bond in the n−6 position, that is, the sixth bond, counting from the methyl end.The biological effects of the n−6 fatty acids are largely mediated by their conversion to n-6 eicosanoids...
s, although pecans contain about half as much omega-6 as walnuts.
A diet rich in nuts can lower the risk of gallstone
Gallstone
A gallstone is a crystalline concretion formed within the gallbladder by accretion of bile components. These calculi are formed in the gallbladder, but may pass distally into other parts of the biliary tract such as the cystic duct, common bile duct, pancreatic duct, or the ampulla of...
s in women. The antioxidant
Antioxidant
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
s and plant sterols
Phytosterol
Phytosterols, which encompass plant sterols and stanols, are steroid compounds similar to cholesterol which occur in plants and vary only in carbon side chains and/or presence or absence of a double bond. Stanols are saturated sterols, having no double bonds in the sterol ring structure. More than...
found in pecans reduce high cholesterol
Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...
by reducing the "bad" LDL cholesterol
Low density lipoprotein
Low-density lipoprotein is one of the five major groups of lipoproteins, which in order of size, largest to smallest, are chylomicrons, VLDL, IDL, LDL, and HDL, that enable transport of cholesterol within the water-based bloodstream...
levels.
Clinical research published in the Journal of Nutrition
Journal of Nutrition
The Journal of Nutrition is one of two academic journals published by the American Society for Nutrition. It is freely accessible to the public after a 12 month embargo. It was started in 1928 and has an impact factor of 3.77, making it the 3rd among peer-reviewed journals in ISI's nutrition and...
(September 2001) found that eating about a handful of pecans each day may help lower cholesterol levels similar to what is often seen with cholesterol-lowering medications. Research conducted at the University of Georgia has also confirmed that pecans contain plant sterols, which are known for their cholesterol-lowering ability. Pecans may also play a role in neurological health. Eating pecans daily may delay age-related muscle nerve degeneration, according to a study conducted at the University of Massachusetts and published in Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research.
The Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company is a brewing company founded in 2003 in Kiln, Mississippi, USA. It operates in a warehouse near Stennis International Airport. It is Mississippi's first package brewery since Prohibition...
from Kiln, Mississippi
Kiln, Mississippi
Kiln is a census-designated place in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area...
has produced a variety of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
using pecans rather than hops
Hops
Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...
.
Evolutionary Development
The pecan, Carya illinoinensis, is a member of the Juglandaceae family. Juglandaceae is represented world wide by between 7 and 10 extant genera and more than 60 species. Most of these species are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere of the New World, but can be found on every continent except for Antarctica. The first fossil examples of the family appear during the CretaceousCretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
. Differentiation between the subfamilies of Engelhardioideae and Juglandioideae occurred during the early Paleogene
Paleogene
The Paleogene is a geologic period and system that began 65.5 ± 0.3 and ended 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and comprises the first part of the Cenozoic Era...
, about 64 million years ago. Extant examples of Engelharioideae are generally tropical and evergreen while those of Juglandioideae are deciduous and found in more temperate zones. The second major step in the development of the pecan was a change from wind dispersed fruits to animal dispersion. This dispersal strategy coincides with the development of a husk around the fruit and a drastic increase in the relative concentrations of fatty acids. The ratio of oleic to linoleic acids are inverted between wind and animal dispersed seeds. Further differentiation from other species of Juglandaceae occurred about 44 million years ago during the Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...
. The fruits of the pecan genus Carya differ from those of the hickory genus Juglans only in the formation of the husk of the fruit. The husk of walnuts develop from the bracts, bracteoles, and sepals, or sepals only. The husk of pecans develops from the bracts and the bracteoles only.
History
Before European settlement, pecans were widely consumed and traded by Native Americans. As a food source, pecans are a natural choice for pre-agricultural society. They can provide 2 to 5 times more calories per unit weight than wild game and require no preparation. As a wild forage, the fruit of the previous growing season are commonly still edible when found on the ground. Hollow tree trunks, found in abundance in pecan stands, offer ideal storage of pecans by humans and squirrels alike.Pecans first became known to Europeans in the 16th century. The first Europeans to come into contact with pecans were Spanish explorers in what is now Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. The genus Carya does not exist in the Old World. Because of their familiarity with the genus Juglans, these early explorers referred to the nuts as "nogales" and "nueces," the Spanish terms for "walnut tree" and "fruit of the walnut." They noted the particularly thin shell and acorn-like shape of the fruit indicating that they were indeed referring to pecans. The Spaniards brought the pecan into Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
beginning in the 16th century. In 1792 William Bartram
William Bartram
William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...
reported in his botanical book, Travels, a nut tree, "Juglans exalata' that some botanists today argue was the American pecan tree, but others argue was hickory, "Carya ovata". Pecan trees are native to the United States, and writing about the pecan tree goes back to the nation's founders. Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
planted pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis (Illinois nuts), in his nut orchard at his home, Monticello, in Virginia. George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
reported in his journal that Thomas Jefferson gave him "Illinois nuts", pecans, which George Washington then grew at Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
, his Virginia home.
Breeding and Breeding Programs
Active breeding and selection programs are carried out by USDA-ARSAgricultural Research Service
The Agricultural Research Service is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture . ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area...
with growing locations at Brownwood and College Station Texas. While selection work has been done since the late 1800's, most acreage of pecans grown today are of older cultivars such as 'Stuart', 'Schley', 'Desirable', with known flaws but also with known production potential. The long cycle time for pecan trees plus financial considerations dictate that new varieties go through an extensive vetting process before being widely planted. There are numerous examples of varieties that produce well in Texas that fail in the Southeastern U.S. due to increased disease pressure. Selection programs are ongoing at the state level, with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Florida, Missouri and others having trial plantings.
Varieties are available from nurseries that are adapted from the Southern tier of States up through some parts of Iowa and even into southern Canada. Production potential drops significantly when planted further North than Tennessee. Most breeding efforts for Northern adapted varieties have not been on a large enough scale to significantly impact production. Varieties that are available and adapted (e.g., 'Major', 'Martzahn', 'Witte', 'Greenriver', and 'Posey') in zones 6
Hardiness zone
A hardiness zone is a geographically defined area in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by climatic conditions, including its ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone...
and further North are almost entirely selections from wild stands. A Northern adapted variety must be grafted onto a northern rootstock to avoid freeze damage.
The pecan is a 32 chromosome species and can hybridize with other 32 chromosome members of the Carya genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
such as Carya ovata, Carya laciniosa, and Carya cordiformis. Most such hybrids are unproductive, though a few second-generation hybrids have potential for producing hickory-flavored nuts with pecan nut structure. Such hybrids are referred to as "hicans
Hican
A Hican is a tree resulting from a cross between a pecan and some other type of hickory members of the genus Carya - or the nut from such a hybrid tree. Such crosses often occur naturally. While most such hybrids produce unfilled nuts or have other serious flaws, some have desirable qualities from...
" to indicate their hybrid origin.
Symbolism
In 1906, Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg asked that a pecan tree be planted at his grave instead of a traditional headstone, requesting that the nuts be distributed throughout the state to make Texas a "Land of Trees". His wish was carried out and this brought more attention to pecan trees. In 1919 the 36th Texas Legislature made the pecan tree the state tree of TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
In southeast Texas, the Texas Pecan Festival is celebrated every year. There is also an annual Pecan Festival in Colfax, Louisiana in the month of November.