Very interesting! Good to see some American Chestnuts, or close cousins of them, still living in the wild. Viable nuts - that's quite a find, too! I've never seen an American Chestnut tree in fruit. Were there any signs of the Blight in the area?
I wonder how many natural hybrids between American Chestnut and Chinese Chestnut have happened in the wild? This type of natural crossbreeding may be one of few ways for the Chestnut to continue in the wild since only Blight resistant trees probably live long enough to set fruit. Of course, it would probably take forever for a natural hybrid cousin to the American Chestnut with Blight resistance to spread through the forests. Anyway, good finds! On Oct 19, 7:40 pm, James Parton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ENTS, > > To add, On the picture with the chestnuts on the table the left ones > are Chinese and the smaller ones on the right are the ones from the > Dillingham ( American? ) tree. Google omitted part of the pictures > file name. > > JP > > On Oct 19, 7:33 pm, James Parton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > ENTS, > > > > Yesterday, Joy and I went back to the Big Ivy ( Coleman Boundary ) area to > > check the chestnut trees at the Corner Rock picnic area ( Dillingham Rd ) > > for viable chestnuts. As I have stated in past reports I am unsure of the > > identity of these trees in whether they are pure American or an > > American+Chinese hybrid. I found viable fully formed chestnuts on the > > ground. They are small in size like the American tree and are sweeter in > > taste than any Asian chestnut I have tried. They are the best chestnuts I > > have eaten with the exception of the Chinquapin. Later in the evening I > > stopped by some Chinese chestnuts that I knew of on Sugerloaf Rd ( > > Hendersonville ) and collected some nuts for comparison. They are nearly > > three times bigger than the Dillingham trees. The Dillingham trees have > > nuts larger than Chinquapins but smaller than Asian chestnuts. This matches > > the American trees closely. If these two trees are indeed hybrids their > > traits more closely match their > > American relative. The only thing that leads me to thinking they are > > hybrids are a slightly different shape to the leaf. Not dramatic. I thank > > Bob Anders and Walt Christian for letting me know of these trees. > > > > After collecting nuts from the Corner Rock chestnuts we rode up to the > > trailhead to Douglas Falls. Earlier in the year Will Blozan told me of a > > 60ft tree he had seen in there that was right on the trail and I hoped to > > locate it. We found it and one other decent sized one nearby. Will's tree > > was measured using laser/clinometer to be 58.85 feet tall. The other one > > was a respectable 41.16 feet tall. I found a couple of others that were > > around 20 feet tall. I hope to do a more detailed exploration of the area > > in the future. > > > > By the way, the hemlocks seem even worse than they were back during the > > summer. It does not look good for them. > > > > The fall colors are beautiful. > > > > > > American Chestnut 41' 16Ft 1Ft 3In CBH > > > > American Chestnut 58' 85Ft 2ft 2In CBH > > http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/north_carolina/bigivy/big... > > > > > > James P. > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > Do You Yahoo!? > > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection > > aroundhttp://mail.yahoo.com > > > Dillingham_Leaves.JPG > > 133KViewDownload > > > Chinese > > 107KViewDownload > > > Joy_American > > 165KViewDownload > > > Typical > > 112KViewDownload > > > American > > 83KViewDownload > > > Dillingham > > 125KViewDownload- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
