American Chestnut
(Castanea dentata)
Fagaceae (Beech Family)
▲ young tree at Minnesota Arboretum
▲▼ leaves
▲ flowers
▲ fruit
▲ bark and trunk
Location on or near campus: not known
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Castanea dentata:
American Chestnut
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leaves similar to sawtooth oak, large growing tree with spiny fruit enclosing
large edible nut; very large growing tree
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native to eastern 1/3 of U.S., but essentially killed out by chestnut blight
(disease) in first half of 20th century
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is a fungal disease spread by air and root grafts, causing cankers and
stem/branch die back
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stumps re-sprout and sometimes live long enough to produce nuts
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only stump sprouts remain of in regions of original trees
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extensive work going on to produce disease-resistant chestnuts by either:
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selecting seedlings that appear more resistant and cross-breeding them, then
selecting most resistant seedlings to cross again—takes 10-15 years from nut to
flowering, so many years required to achieve fairly resistant trees—they are
starting to release some cultivars now
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crossing American chestnut to resistant Chinese chestnut, then crossing
resistant seedlings back to American to get more of the American traits—single,
straight trunk, tall tree; sweeter nut—but hopefully keeping the resistance from
the Chinese chestnut in the offspring—again, takes a long time, and just now,
some hybrids are entering market