"Pecan" is from an Algonquian word, variously referring to pecans, walnuts, and hickory nuts. The seed is an edible nut used as a snack and in various recipes, such as praline candy and pecan pie.

A monoecious tree species, they contain both male and female flowers on a single individual. A pecan, like the fruit of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut but is technically a drupe, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. The husks are produced from the exocarp tissue of the flower, while the part known as the nut develops from the endocarp and contains the seed.