Can anyone teII me if this voIunteer is pecan or hickory (pignut)
I think it is a pecan as hickory have the 3 tip Ieaves very cIose together and tip of Ieaves are broader for hickory? thanks
Based on some Googling I’m inclined to say Pecan, but I’m only familiar with hickory trees. Few to no Pecans in my area that I’m aware of.
@ampersand thanks!. We dont have pecans here but there is a pignut a few houses away down the ridge. We have pignuts voIunteers everywhere courtesy of squirreI friends. This may have been the pecans that I gave them which they had buried. I think there are severaI in our garden.
Need to see more than just the terminal leaflets.
Photo of full leaf, bark, buds would be helpful.
@Lucky_P here are some pictures of the nut tree. the bark has a lot of spots and when I looked at the bark of what I know to be a pignut, I dont see these spots. thanks
sorry the pics are not too good. My camera has an intermittant focus problem. thanks!
Roundface,
Hard to tell from your pics.
Any chance it could be Black Walnut? I see you are in Pennsylvania, where I grew up. Black Walnut is all over PA.
Otherwise likely some kind of hickory. Pignut or shagbark or mockernut.
Pecans have a hard time naturalizing in PA. The winters can kill them.
@Matt_in_Maryland I have 2 pecans trees that are struggling due to lack of full sun. After I posted picks I had a look at the bark, there are no spots. I dont think this is black walnut though you are right about blackwaInut being proIific in PA. When I get a chance I wiII crush the Ieaves. BIack waInuts have a very distinctive, frankincense Iike smeII. It is possibIe that it is a pignut cos there is one down the ridge a few doors away. however there is a pignut in our garden, no nuts and the Ieaves and bark Iook different from this one. Thanks
Seeing the bark are you sure it’s not Tree of Heaven aka Alianthus? Wood is hollow and smells.
@ampersand ?tree of heaven? Never heard of it before. I have not have the chance yet to crush leaves and sniff. thanks
@ampersand I googled tree of heaven. The leaves from my tree do not look like the tree of heaven. Looking at the pictures of tree of heaven, I have seen them before, but just do not know that it is what they are called. I do know that what I have is definitely not it
You’re in PA, too, right? Nasty invasive, grows all along highways and in my yard. Google the bark, spot on.
Yes I am in PA. I am hoping it is pecan that my squirrel friends have buried (the pecans I gave them) I looked at the 2 struggling pecans I have put in the back, there are no spots. These 2 seedlings, somehow the leaves are nothing like the tree of heaven, similar. If you look at the edges of the leaves of tree of heaven, they are smooth. the edges of the leaves from my trees if you look closely are not smooth 
)
For your sake I will hope you are right!
i know for sure it is not tree of heaven. just not sure whether it is pecan or pignut. thanks
All tree-of-heaven must die!
The most annoying invasive of the Mid-Atlantic.
I had 5 of them on my mountain property when I bought it a few years ago. I’ve chopped down 3 and girdled another. One last one to kill… oh, the bloodlust!
Tree-of-heaven aka Ailianthus aka “Ghetto Palm.” They all must be destroyed!
Such a nice name for an invasive tree! Thank God I don’t have any! Do they offer anything apart from the invasion they cause? thanks
They grow rapidly, anywhere.
It’s pecan.
Leaves, bark, and petiole scar(with set of three buds above) are typical.
The slight reddish tint on the terminal, expanding leaflets, is characteristic of seedling pecans that haven’t yet reached fruiting maturity.