| Description: | Pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis, grow in natural groves in bottom lands near rivers or lakes with nearby periodic overflowing water. Archeological remains and fossil evidence reveals that pecans were collected and stored by Indians, the original settlers and inhabitants of America, and the group now known as the mound builders. American Indians followed this same example and were actively gathering pecan nuts when the European colonists arrived. The pecan trees were found growing in their northern limits along the tributaries of the Mississippi River near Louisville, Kentucky; Terra Haute, Indiana; and Clinton, Iowa, which is located at the same latitude as Chicago, Illinois. |
