山核桃 is hickory! Which is not, as far as I know, a pecan. (Right? Pecans grow on... pecan trees? I think?) *headdesk*
I just looked it up after seeing the same thing on Pleco, and per Wikipedia apparently "The pecan is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River." So I guess a pecan tree is a type of hickory tree!
And after browsing the article I'm now wondering if the confusion among the Chinese names might be because they probably just don't really have many pecans in China? Wikipedia says pecans are one of the "most recently domesticated" major crops and that the US and Mexico account for 93% of pecan crops worldwide, so I kind of doubt they're well-known in Asia...
...wait just kidding there's actually a whole species of Chinese hickory, which might actually be what 山核桃 usually refers to in China?? It sounds like actually pecans are just a specific US/Mexico variety of hickory nuts...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-01-20 09:43 am (UTC)I just looked it up after seeing the same thing on Pleco, and per Wikipedia apparently "The pecan is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River." So I guess a pecan tree is a type of hickory tree!
And after browsing the article I'm now wondering if the confusion among the Chinese names might be because they probably just don't really have many pecans in China? Wikipedia says pecans are one of the "most recently domesticated" major crops and that the US and Mexico account for 93% of pecan crops worldwide, so I kind of doubt they're well-known in Asia...
...wait just kidding there's actually a whole species of Chinese hickory, which might actually be what 山核桃 usually refers to in China?? It sounds like actually pecans are just a specific US/Mexico variety of hickory nuts...