Daily Quiz for May 24, 2020

[Mike Nolan]

Some nut trees are self-pollinating, others require a second tree. Which type is the American Chestnut?

[See the full post at: Daily Quiz for May 24, 2020]

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[BakerAunt]

I guessed incorrectly.

[skeptic7]

I knew this. There was an article in New York Time magazine about a group trying to bring back the American Chestnut tree.

Here is a page from that foundation. The previous page might be behind a firewall

Tree Breeding

[BakerAunt]

Ok, I can't resist, although the chestnut tree is only mentioned in the opening line:

https://www.hwlongfellow.org/poems_poem.php?pid=38

[Mike Nolan]

We planted two American Chestnut trees in the front yard last year, they're doing fairly well this year. This is the 2nd time we've tried this, the first ones didn't survive the first summer, I think they didn't get enough water.

One of them is almost taller than me at this point, the other one was a little shorter to start with but may be taller than me by the end of the season, because annual growth for young chestnut trees can be 2-3 feet.

These trees will eventually take the place of two ash trees that will probably be lost to the emerald ash borer, which has been detected in Lincoln.

[Joan Simpson]

I got it as I had watched a program awhile back on this tree.

Sweet poem BakerAunt.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Joan Simpson.

[Mike Nolan]

I can't help but think of the Bullwinkle version of that poem, in which 'smithy' becomes 'jonesy'.

[BakerAunt]

Apparently there are a LOT of parodies of that poem.

[cwcdesign]

I got it wrong - I remember picking chestnuts off the ground with the boys when they were little, but It didn’t dawn on me that that’s why there would have been a couple of trees

[RiversideLen]

I had a 50/50 chance and missed it too.

[Italiancook]

I thought a disease had eliminated these trees, so I missed it.

[Mike Nolan]

Chestnut blight nearly wiped out the American chestnut tree in the middle of the 20th century, whole forests of it in the eastern US were affected. The Chinese chestnut is not as affected by the blight, and I think the latest generation of American Chestnuts has been cross-bred with the Chinese chestnut to give it some of that blight resistance but retain most of the sweetness of the American chestnut. The Nebraska State Arboretum has been selling these American/Chinese chestnut trees, that's where the two in our front yard came from.

There are also European chestnuts, they're even sweeter, but for some reason they don't grow well in the USA. Chestnut flour is usually made from European chestnuts, though I'm told it can be made from American chestnuts, too. Hopefully I'll be able to find out in a few years.

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