Found throughout the Eastern US, Hickory is a very dense, open pore wood.  Used more for lumber than veneer, select logs are sliced and yield very handsome veneers.  The heartwood is a light grey brown and the sapwood is generally white.  Some logs, depending on actual growing region can also have a little red mixed in.

Pecan and Hickory are very similar to one another, and even share the same genus: Carya.  Although Pecan is more typically found in the lower Mississippi River Valley.  The coloration is the same, and both are sold interchangeably most of the time.