Siers
Carya × laneyi (C. ovata × C. cordiformis)
The record
- Parentage
- Carya × laneyi (C. ovata × C. cordiformis)
- Origin
- not recorded
- Rights
- rights unknown — No patent, certificate, or trademark found in the sources consulted.
- Also known as
- ‘Jones hybrid’, as the USDA accession was long labelled
- Form
- Tall and slender — a habit of interest for high-density orchards, as it reduces the need for hedging
- Use
- Under evaluation in the pecan programme for both rootstock and scion potential
Description
This record is here for what happened to its name.
An accession in the National Collection of Genetic Resources for Pecans and Hickories carried the label ‘Jones hybrid’ with incomplete information about its origin and identity. A 2016 USDA study combined phenotypic and genetic profiling and concluded the tree is ‘Siers’, a cultivar of Carya × laneyi — shagbark crossed with bitternut hickory. Not the plant the label said, and not even the same hybrid combination.
Hold that next to every other entry in this file. A federal germplasm collection, curated by specialists, carried a wrong name for decades until somebody sequenced it. The nursery trade has no such correction mechanism. When a hickory arrives with a cultivar name on the tag, the name is a claim about a chain of grafts going back to one original tree, and nobody along that chain was under any obligation to check.
The tree itself turns out to be interesting: a tall, slender habit is exactly what a high-density pecan orchard wants.
Where to find it
No source recorded. That does not mean the cultivar is unavailable, only that this record does not yet name a nursery carrying it. Point us at one and it goes in.