trilobatracker slipped a mickey in the convo. I recognize that pure American chestnut from the Florence planting. I have a few seedlings from that tree.
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We found one of the 2 chestnuts labeled American at University of Montana in Missoula in November, which doubles as the state arboretum and forestry college. Generally the area has alkaline soil and extreme temperature swings, technically zone 5 but some wicked deep frosts sometimes in fall and spring. So it has fruited, there were burrs on the ground. It’s a beautiful campus, also has hickories and hazels. My first time to see a chestnut. Glad to have the ID information.
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There’s a lot of misinformation and mythology about the American chestnut. For instance, the claim that one in every four trees in the eastern deciduous forest was an American chestnut…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320564884_Did_American_chestnut_really_dominate_the_eastern_forest
There were already hybrids here in the US when the blight arrived. As I understand, the Americans were not all that tasty,by comparison, and the nuts were mostly quite small, so folks had been importing European, Chinese, and Japanese chestnut genetics for planting and crossbreeding long before the early 1900s when the blight appeared.
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Pure European sweet chesnuts (Castanea sativa) available from Burnt Ridge Nursery
https://www.burntridgenursery.com/
catalogue https://www.burntridgenursery.com/text/Catalog_2025.pdf
Well…
This dentata is legitimately flowering for the first time, yet when I peeked at the base of the trunk today I noticed the beginnings of blight and some cankers. I guess I could mud pack it easily considering how low it is, but this tree’s genetics aren’t promising. I don’t expect them to live 50+ years, but a decade of decent nut production is my goal.
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How is mud supposed to help?
Saw this recent article if anyone interested (Darling 54 variety):
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The Darling GMO chestnut research has been a bit of a disaster since Dr Powell from SUNY ESF passed away. The original tree trying to get approval was D-58. Then there was mislabeling and research sites got the wrong trees and IIRC, most of the D-58s were lost. TACF stopped aligning with SUNY ESF and SUNY continued on with the next best option for approval this time…D-54. I think that’s the gist of it. I’ve been souring on the work the past few years.
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Very interesting.
I wonder how the blow torch method would work on something like this.