pecan

open main page for all woods open page 2 for articles

PECAN

Carya spp.
Carya spp. of the family Juglandaceae, the walnut family

Principally Carya aquatica, Carya cordiformis, Carya floridana, Carya illinoinensis, Carya myristicaeformis, Carya pallida, and Carya texana BUT ... you may find ANY of those listed as hickory as well as pecan. As far as I can tell, there are NO Carya species that are listed as pecan that are not also listed as hickory (but there are several that are listed as hickory but not as pecan)

Pecan frequently cannot be distinguished from hickory without close examination and in fact the two are often mixed indiscriminately in lumber yards and simply sold as hickory. They CAN be distinguished, with some effort, as is shown in the link in this box:

HICKORY VS PECAN

my samples:
NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K)
colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of pecan / Carya illinoinensis

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the closeup is a bit too red

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above plus a high magnification end grain area of the piece just to show clearly that the banded parenchyma does exist at the beginning of the growth rings.

both sides of a sample plank of pecan / Carya illinoinensis --- HUGE enlargements are present

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above plus a high magnification end grain area of the piece just to show clearly that the banded parenchyma does exist at the beginning of the growth rings.

both sides of a sample plank of pecan / Carya illinoinensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of pecan / Carya illinoinensis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

both sides of a sample plank listed as pecan / Carya illinoinensis with accurate color --- I judge this sample plank to be of poor quality and probably not well representative of the species. This poor quality was common in the samples I got from the IWCS.

A later note: further experience with this wood has confirmed my belief that this IWCS sample looks like crap and is NOT representative of pecan wood as it generally looks. See the samples above this one for much better representations of this wood.

end grain and end grain closeup of the sample plank directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of pecan (water hickory) / Carya aquatica. The purplish color is correct

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above plus a high magnification end grain area of the piece just to show clearly that the banded parenchyma does exist at the beginning of the growth rings.

both sides of a sample plank of pecan (water hickory) / Carya aquatica --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of bitternut hickory / Carya cordiformis --- this species has the pecan Glabras characteristics of banded parenchyma in the earlywood, unlike the hickory Glabras which do not.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above plus a high magnification end grain area of the piece just to show clearly that the banded parenchyma does exist at the beginning of the growth rings.

both sides of a sample plank of bitternut hickory / Carya cordiformis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This species has the pecan Glabras characteristics of banded parenchyma in the earlywood, unlike the hickory Glabras which do not.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of bitternut hickory / Carya cordiformis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. this species has the pecan Glabras characteristics of banded parenchyma in the earlywood, unlike the hickory Glabras which do not.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank sold to me as bitternut hickory / Carya cordiformis --- this species has the pecan Glabras characteristics of banded parenchyma in the earlywood, unlike the hickory Glabras which do not, HOWEVER ... this sample does not actually appear to have that characteristics (see the high magnification end grain area below) so I am doubtful about this identification but it's kind of borderline since the bands DO go down into the early pores, just not all the way.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above --- the end grain shot is too dark

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above plus a high magnification end grain area of the piece that was SUPPOSED to show clearly that the banded parenchyma does exist at the beginning of the growth rings, however, all areas of this sample show the same thing, which is as you can see, is that the bands DO go down into the early pores, just not all the way.

both sides of a sample plank of bitternut hickory / Carya cordiformis --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This species has the pecan Glabras characteristics of banded parenchyma in the earlywood, unlike the hickory Glabras which do not.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a sample plank of black hickory / Carya texana --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. This is one of the "pecan hickories" and is often called pecan.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

both sides of a plank --- I note from end grain analysis that it's hard to tell whether this is a pecan or a hickory but it looks closer to pecan

closeup of the plank above

plank and end grain --- this was cut from the larger plank above and sanded down for the pics

end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above. The update is from the other end of the piece

another piece cut from the larger plank above --- HUGE enlargements are present.

end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above

END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

A piece sent to me for identification. It is clearly Carya spp. and because of the general look I expected it to be in the hickory group but it has banded parenchyma in the first row of earlywood pores, so it is in the pecan group.

the end grain and HIGH GRIT END GRAIN CLOSEUP of the piece directly above. The banded parenchyma in the early wood pores is not obvious in the high grit end grain pic but it is there.

veneer

veneer sheet and two closeups

veneer sheet and closeup

pecan veneer --- HUGE enlargements are present. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION D

pecky veneer sheet and closeup --- not a very good example of "pecky" in general but apparently about average for pecky in this species

The Wood Book pics

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
pecan (Carya aquatica, listed as water hickory, swamp hickory and bitter pecan) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views. Also most often called various hickory names, this species is in the pecan group of Carya spp.

flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
pecan (Hicoria pecan) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views. Hicoria pecan is a synonym for Carya illinoinensis

bitter pecan (Carya amara, which is a synonym for Carya cordiformis, also listed as swamp hickory) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views. This wood is often called bitternut hickory and other hickory names but it is in the pecan group of Carya spp.

web pics:

flat cut, quartersawn, and end grain

large pecan cookie before and after CNC routered lettering

log end

log end showing spalting --- both levels of enlargement are present

planks

both sides of a slab listed as Texas hickory (a "pecan hickory", that is also often called pecan)

bowl blank and turning stock

pen blanks

plank that seems too orange to me

plank that is much darker than my experience of pecan but I cannot say with any authority that it is not a correct color

planks and closeup

planks, all from the same vendor

crotch scales

two views each of two sets of spalted pecan planks

spalted plank

All of the pics in this section were submitted by James Taglienti, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

James provided excellent pics so enlargements are available on all of them.

a set of planks shown both dry and wet ... some of the other pics here are closeups of some of these.

spalted bookmatched pair shown dry ... these are the bottom 2 planks in the top two pics

dry / wet closeups

end grain (wet) of spalted planks

this is the top two planks from the top two pics, dry

heartwood with wormy sap (this is not from the top two pics)

wormy plank (not from top two pics)

All of the pics in this section were submitted by James Taglienti, whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.

James provided excellent pics so enlargements are available on all of them.

this was just listed as a plank, but it appears to be spalted

spalted end grain scales with both levels of enlargement present

spalted

veneer

veneer, both from the same vendor

"pecky" veneer

bowl blank

pecan hat by Dennis Ford. I don't normally solicit pics for this site but I found Dennis's work to be so striking that I asked, and he generously contributed this and several other pics of his hats, using various American domestic woods including Siberian elm, American elm, sweet gum, ash, and pecan. The finish on this one is Minwax wipe on poly and the band was done with burning and dyes. HUGE enlargements are present. My thanks to Dennis for the pics.