Texas
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
The pecan, one of the hickories,
from the genus Carya and of the family juglandaceae, has
a long history. It is widely believed that early inhabitants
of Texas were active distributors of pecans around America.
Not only has a fossilized pecan been found in a lime-rock
formation near San Saba, Texas, but also a prehistoric
specimen was unearthed near the banks of the Missouri
River.
The name pecan, is a contracted
form of the American Indian name, pohickory. The early
colonists named them pignuts. Interestingly, the name
pecan was first used by the Louisiana french who spelt
it pecanne - and this likely accounts for the dual pronunciation
of pe-kan or kän still in use today.
Early in the 1980s,
some Texans discovered pecan trees that yielded large
nuts with thin shells - a perfect balance. Demand increased
and with it came the emergence of nut specialists as Texas
was rich with over ten million native trees to develop.
In 1912, The Pecan, Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin
No. 251, noted that the annual wild crop of Texas ranged
from 3,645,000 to 17,820,000 pounds, of which pecans were
approximately three fifths of the entire volume.
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Bluebonnet ( Lupinus
)
