Transcript American Chestnut

The American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
“Emperor of the Forest”
“Redwood of the East”
“King of Trees”
“Farmer’s Friend”
• The American Chestnut is the 3rd-largest
tree in North America.
• It is the fastest-growing native tree in
North America.
• It regrows without being replanted after
logging. New sprouts grow from the
stump.
• It is our best native hardwood for
woodworking and construction. Tough,
water-resistant, rot-resistant and easy to
grow.
• It is valuable as a food species for wildlife.
• American chestnut is valuable as firewood.
• Valuable food crop for humans. “Chestnuts
roasting on an open fire”
• Per tree, produces more food for wildlife
than any other tree species in the eastern
U.S.
• At one time, 1 out of every 4 trees in its
range were American chestnuts.
• It blooms late (June), so it is unaffected by
late freezes (unlike oaks) and reliably
produces nuts.
The sharply toothed leaves of
American chestnut
The nuts and burs of the American
chestnut
• Catkins (flowers) on
an American
chestnut tree in
June.
• Settlers used to say
the mountains
looked covered in
snow when the
Chestnuts bloomed
in June.
• Range of the
American
chestnut.
Where are they now?
• The planting of a few exotic chestnut trees
(possibly the Japanese chestnut, C.
crenata) in or near New York City shortly
before 1904 quickly proved to have been
one of the most tragic mistakes of the
century.
• No one considered the potential hazards
of exotic imports and the parasites which
they may host.
• One or more of those trees hosted the
most efficient specific tree destroyer
known to plant pathologists anywhere in
the world.
• In the first 40 years of the 20th century, a
blight (plant disease) destroyed 3.5 billion+
American chestnuts.
• No comparable devastation of a species
exists in recorded history.
• Endothia parasitica has virtually wiped out
the American chestnut.
• In 1978, it was renamed, Cryphonectria
parasitica.
• Picture of Cryphonectria
parasitica (chestnut blight
fungus) on a young
American chestnut tree.
The wood is very resistant to decay. In the mountains it's
still easy to find logs of medium-large trees (such as this
one) that died in the 1930s-1940s.
“The Holy Grail”
• Discovering a stand of mature chestnutproducing American Chestnut Trees in the
forest.
• They would have to be resistant to the
blight.
• They could be used to repopulate the
eastern deciduous forest.
New Hope for the American Chestnut
• "It is not beyond the grasp of science to
restore the American chestnut to economic
importance. It could be accomplished
within the next 50 years. "
-- Prof. Gary Griffin, Virginia Tech
• As of April 2007, American chestnut
cooperators have planted 117,792
seedlings and 59,628 seednuts from our
all-American orchards.