Pollination of Pecans 105 



growers allow first and second place to the varieties of Group 

 II. 



In grouping varieties including Alley and Moneymaker, it 

 is well that these be planted near each other, for Alley sheds 

 its catkins before all the pistillate flowers pass the receptive 

 stage and Moneymaker is one of the earliest bloomers of 

 Group II and will serve as a pollinator for the Alley. 



The limits to which the pecan will hybridize with other 

 species of nuts has not been determined. However, there is 

 little doubt that it will readily cross with almost any other 

 species of hickory. Pecan-hickory hybrids thus far intro- 

 duced have been of little economic value as nut-producing 

 trees when compared with the pecan itself. When the hickory 

 blooms synchronously with the pecan, that is, when the pollen 

 of the hickory catkins is shed at the same time that the pistil- 

 late flowers of nearby pecan trees become receptive, the 

 hickory may prove of economic importance as a pollinator 

 for the pecan. The resultant plants, if the seeds were planted, 

 would probably produce nuts of very inferior quality. How- 

 ever, as long as the nuts are sold for consumption and not for 

 propagation, the male parent in the production of a crop is 

 of little consequence, if successful pollination is effected. 



In the Seventh Annual Eeport of the Missouri Botanical 

 Garden, William Trelease gives an account of a number of 

 pecan-hickory hybrids. He received flowers, twigs and fruit 

 specimens of one of these from S. G. Galloway of Eaton, Ohio. 

 It seems that the tree which came up near a cultivated pecan 

 showed sufficient characters of both the pecan and H. minima 

 (bitter-nut hickory) to mark it as a hybrid between the two 

 species. Similar hybrids are also shown as existing between 

 the pecans and the hickory, the Mocker nut and the bottom 

 shellbark hickory. 



