Life finds a way.
American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
31–40 of 157 posts
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#32This article makes it sound as if there's no large American Chestnuts, but that's not completely accurate. The largest trees in the US are a pair of trees in Thurston County, WA, that are 80-90' tall with ~10' circumferences: https://d3f9k0n15ckvhe.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/202...
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#33Fantastic short story about the American Chestnut in the book Overstory by Richard Powers.
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#34The recent Stewart Brand documentary goes into American Chestnuts quite a bit.
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#35The Seek app by iNaturalist is one possible way for armchair conservationists to catalog the trees on their property.
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#36If this tree had a secret to cultivating a resistant strain that would be very awesome. Is there a good app which lets you input your zip code, maybe also sun exposure and soil conditions, how many feet of width and height you have available, and then where it will spit out a list of well-suited tree specimens with some nice pictures of each?
A walk around the block looking at what grows is another option.
Seedling and seed from those trees tend to do well.
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've thought about finding this, or potentially building it if it doesn't exist. I was thinking for gardens and fruit trees. I'm particularly interested in well-suited plants because I will inevitably ignore them, and I'm hoping they can thrive without me. I'm planting figs this fall.
Fig trees are excellent. My wife has one in her gatden, snd after just a few years ee get so many tasty fruits from a pretty small tree. I live in Bay Area and pretty much it is just water it a bit and every so often cut back weeds.
> pretty small tree.
Im in New Zealand and made the mistake of planting one. It’s turning into a monster and they grow in every direction, fast.
When in SF unnoticed what out Pohutakawa have done over your way and was fairly impressed at their growth.
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#38Cool to see this here and people talking about it. I volunteered with the American Chestnut Foundation during my summers in high school. Usually spent a few weeks on the Meadowview research farm collecting catkins off trees, “processing” the catkins to bottle the pollen, bagging trees to prevent uncontrolled cross pollination, and pollinating trees by hand.
My uncle and I also usually took hikes in NC to try and find remaining trees with pollen in the wild. From what I understand, the pollen from these few remaining living trees is used to help re-introduce regional biodiversity into the backcrossed American/Chinese hybrids.
Highly recommend going and helping out on the farm if you can spare a week or two, or joining your state chapter if you’ve got one - or sending your kids!
Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#39For the record, if you discover a long-lost extinct species, wait until you’ve collected seeds before you tell the world where you found it.
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Re: American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists
#40Is there a theory where this tree came from? Is it presumed blight resistant or just really lucky for its location? The old trees live on in the roots but the young shoots die off, presuming blight resistance, did it evolve asexually?