The Main Plant entry for Pecans (Carya illinoinensis)

I first saw this species grown in nut-producing orchards while driving in southern Alabama to and from Florida. Its native range is much of east Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma except the panhandle, much of Missouri, southern Illinois & Indiana, and along the Mississippi from the Gulf up to the south Wisconsin border and up the Illinois River into central Illinois, growing in bottomlands. It grows about 8 inches/year in nature and lives about 300 years. It needs moist soil. Its compound leaves get to 20 inches long and have 9 to 17 narrow leaflets with sharp teeth on margins. its bark stays smooth gray for a long time, but eventually develops furrowed bark with long, flat ridges. It develops the typical hickory deep taproot, but small trees can be moved in early spring B&B. There are quite a number of cultivars developed for nut production and are smaller, more compact, and grow faster.

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State tree of Texas.

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