Pecan Tree Research Paper

Submitted By Tirrell2012
Words: 1309
Pages: 6

Pecan Tree
Domain- Eukaryota
Kingdom- Plantae; subkingdom Tracheobionta
Phylum- Spermatophyta; subphylum Magnoliaphyta
Class- Magnoliopsida
Order- Fagales
Family- Juglandacae
Genus- Carya
Species- Illinoinensis
I am doing my research paper over Carya Illinoensis most commonly none as the Pecan Tree, Pecan Hickory, Sweet Pecan, Illinois Nut, or Soft-Shelled Hickory. The reason for picking this tree is pretty clear for me since in the winter time I am a pecan harvester with my dad and his other workers. Pecans are part of the Juglandacar Walnut family. They are large, deciduous trees with thick, light brown to reddish-brown, narrow, flattened and scaly bark with irregular fissures. They can grow over 100 feet tall. In 1919, Texas named the Pecan Tree as its official state tree and was adopted as the state health nut in 2001. Fossils found in Texas reveal that native pecan trees were present before humans. Pecans can survive more than a thousand years and grow over 100 feet tall.
Pecans were an important part of many Native Americans’ diet. They would mix pecans with wild fruits and vegetables, make “energy drinks” out of pecan milk, and use pecan meal to thicken soups. They also packed roasted pecans when they traveled to support them when food was hard to find. The nuts have a high percentage of fat and are used extensively in candies and cookies. The leaves and bark are sometimes used as an astringent
Pecan leaves are alternate and compound. They get anywhere from 12 to 20 inches long and have 9 to 17 leaflets that are 3 to 8 inches long and 1 to 2 inches wide. On top, the leaves are smooth to slightly hairy and dark yellow-green and slightly paler beneath. There are stout reddish-brown, hairy terminal buds along the twigs that are almost ½ inch long. They are flattened and pointed at the tip. It also has lateral buds that are smaller, hairy, broadly cone-shaped, and pointy. Leaf scars are three-lobed and prominent along the twig.
Its flowers bloom in the spring. There are both sexes on the same tree—the male staminate flowers, catkins, are arranged in groups of 2 to 8 by a common peduncle. They measure 5 to 6 inches long. The female pistillate flowers are a star-shaped terminal raceme and appear as short terminal spikes. The fruit ripens in the fall in clusters of 3 to 11. The husk of the nut is thin and has four sections. It often stays on the tree after the nut has fallen off. The nut is a light reddish-brown with irregular black or darker brown blotches. The inside of the nut kernel is usually liquid until September. It then solidifies and the remaining meat is edible, sweet and oily.
J. W. Worthington, in the Texas Pecan Handbook, discusses pecan seed germination. According to Worthington, the seeds are taken from dry storage, placed in moist soil where they absorb water through the shell for about 2 weeks, enzymes stimulate growth, the kernels swell, the shell splits, the young root emerges and grows ½ inch per day. It then extends a foot or more into the soil before the shoot emerges through 2 or 3 inches of soil. Germination is staggered for each individual seedling and it takes 4 to 8 weeks for all seed to come up. Dry storage is required for the nuts as soon as they are harvested. Kernel percent moisture needs to be reduced from 20 at harvest to 6, 5, or 4 before going into storage. The drying needs to be as fast as possible without using heat.
Pecans have physiological dormancy, but some seeds may be non-dormant. Pecan trees can go through 10 to 12 years of juvenility. Juvenility is the duration of time in the life cycle of a plant that it is limited to vegetative growth. It is believed to be an adaptive feature that allows trees to establish themselves. From a pecan production perspective, the long period of juvenility increases the time it takes to gain a profit. For some pecan cultivators, staminate pollen shedding and stigma receptivity is usually largely asynchronous. Cross-pollination of pecans is