Rare American Chestnut trees discovered
ALBANY, Ga. – A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Little White House at Warm Springs.
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees.
“There’s something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight,” said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. “It’s either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance.”
Experts say it could be that the chestnuts have less competition from other trees along the dry, rocky ridge. The fungus that causes the blight thrives in a moist environment.
The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.
“This is a terrific find,” said David Keehn, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. “A tree of this size is one in a million.”
The rugged area known as Pine Mountain is at the southern end of the Appalachians near Warm Springs, where Roosevelt built a home and sought treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.
“FDR may have roasted some chestnuts on his fire for Christmas or enjoyed their blooms in the spring,” Klaus said.
The chestnut foundation may use pollen from the tree in a breeding program aimed at restoring the population with blight-resistant trees.
“When the flowers are right, we’re going to rush down and pollinate the flowers, collect the seeds a few weeks later and collect the nuts,” Klaus said. “If we ever find a genetic solution to the chestnut blight, genes from that tree will find their way into those trees.”
The chestnut foundation has been working for about 15 years to develop a blight-resistant variety. The goal is to infuse the American chestnut with the blight-resistant genes of the Chinese chestnut.
American chestnuts once made up about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern United States, with an estimated 4 billion trees from Maine to Mississippi and Florida.
The trees helped satisfy demand for roasted chestnuts, and their rot-resistant wood was used to make fence posts, utility poles, barns, homes, furniture and musical instruments.
Then these magnificent hardwoods, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904.
“There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and if they are, they’re Chinese,” Keehn said.
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On the Net:
American Chestnut Foundation: http://www.acf.org/default.htm
Replies
That is really, really neat. Thanks for posting the link to the Am. Chestnut Foundation. Do you have a link that's specific to that article? I couldn't find it browsing around. Thanks!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I just read it after I saw it on the front page of the local paper (online). You can go to http://www.jsonline.com and it's about 1/2 way down the page. Ironically, it's one of the first times I have seen anything like this so soon from this paper. Usually, they're about a week late and they bury the important stuff about three pages back in a section nobody reads.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Here's a direct link ( http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12861536/ ) to the article on MSNBC's site. A quick search on Google News showed that it's been picked up by a ton of news organizations already. Very cool.
here is the link:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060519/ap_on_sc/chestnut_discovery_7
That's AWESOME News!!!.. Probably the best news I've heard so far this year.
MStehelin,
I remember about two decades ago seeing a stand of about 40 trees in Wisconsin that were unaffected by the blight. In fact there are pictures of that same stand of American chestnut tress in one of Tauton press books.. here and there are rare single trees unaffected by the blight, isolation seems to protect them more than anything else..
American chestnut tress .. My neighbor has one 9At least I think it is one).. He wants to cut it down! Dang.. And he is a America Indian!Gee... I keep talking him out of it when he comes out with his chainsaw.. I clean up the C*** it dropps for him...Pretty old tree.. Well as pretty as it gets bein' OLD gets! As in ME!
There are still a few around here, NE Ohio. I have one in my woods thats about 9" caliper but it still hasn't flowered, Just waiting for the day I see the catkins. The parent tree, Just a fallen down rotting old log is about 20' away.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Am I correct in thinking the parent tree died of the
blight? An answer to this question might be of value to a plant breeder.
All,
The plant science people nearby at VPI in Blacksburg have produced some blight resistant seedlings that were to be planted in the wild. I read this in a local newspaper, I believe it was last summer. They've been working for many years on hybridization with the blight resistant Chinese species, and back-breeding with American stock, to produce a strain that retains all the qualities of the American trees with the blight resistance of the Oriental one.
My son is a forestry technician with VA DoF, so I'm hoping to get a crack at growing a few, when they become more readily available. I personally have seen a pretty good sized (16" dia @chest height) chestnut growing wild in Shenandoah nat'l park. The opened burrs were scattered all round. I looked to pick up a few nuts, but the wild turkeys had beat me to them!
Regards,
Ray Pine
Yesterday, I was down in a little town between Little Rock, and Pine Bluff getting a big White Oak tree to saw on my mill, and in the same yard about 100 feet away was a good size Chestnut about 14" dia. at the base X 40' tall, with a nice thick crown in full bloom. The elderly lady showed me some of the nuts from last years crop. It felt like it was fully developed to me. I think she said she got the sapling from WV.
You are correct in the assumption that the parent tree died of the blight, There are actually quite a few Am. chestnuts around sprouting up from the parent root stock. In a 15 Mile Radius from me I know of three separate locations where the are popping up as fingerlings. But sadly when they get up to the 6" caliper they usually succumb to the blight. Hopefully the tenacity of the great Tree will overcome the blight. I have about 250 bd.ft. Some 5/4 X 17" X 10'-12' just waiting for the perfect project. It came from a salvage job, A hotel built in 1851. When you stop to think that the trees were alive and well during G. Washingtons time and Lumber when A. Lincoln was President. I surly have to make something very special.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
The tree still gives off nuts.. I have NO idea why? I don't think there is another Chestnut tree in Chicago.. Maybe it makes 'love' in REM sleep?
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