American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
AKA - American Chestnut
This tree is hard to find. We have limited stock as we are currently setting up germplasm preservation lots in our auxiliary site in southeastern PA. Seed sources are from healthy trees without signs of blight and confirmed pure.
There are currently tens of thousands of wild pure American Chestnut trees in the eastern United States. However, they succumb to the introduced Chestnut Blight at a young age and rarely make it to maturity, with only their stumps surviving to send out new shoots that again succumb to the blight after a few years. Thus, they cannot reproduce effectively and are endangered in the United States. Really, they are “functionally extinct” in that they no longer play a role in their local ecosystems. However, they are not completely extinct. Several hundred thousand saplings and live stumps continue to grow and die in a constant battle between the blight and the tree’s roots. Some shoots live long enough to produce a few seeds, then die back.
The American Chestnut is tenacious and is hanging in there while we work on solutions to the problem we caused ourselves. Hybridization and pure chestnut selection efforts are underway at the American Chestnut Foundation and American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation. While pure American Chestnuts will always die back from the blight (eventually), it’s important to plant as many as you can to keep their populations up and save genetic local diversity until a solution is found.
Also, keep in mind that while American Chestnut trees are monoecious (both male and female flowers on the same tree), they are self-incompatible. This means you need at least 2 Chestnut trees for pollination and to actually produce nuts.
These seeds are from conservationists and enthusiasts working to keep the American Chestnut alive . The parent trees are verified pure by either local extension programs and/or educational institutions.
Castanea dentata
AKA - American Chestnut
This tree is hard to find. We have limited stock as we are currently setting up germplasm preservation lots in our auxiliary site in southeastern PA. Seed sources are from healthy trees without signs of blight and confirmed pure.
There are currently tens of thousands of wild pure American Chestnut trees in the eastern United States. However, they succumb to the introduced Chestnut Blight at a young age and rarely make it to maturity, with only their stumps surviving to send out new shoots that again succumb to the blight after a few years. Thus, they cannot reproduce effectively and are endangered in the United States. Really, they are “functionally extinct” in that they no longer play a role in their local ecosystems. However, they are not completely extinct. Several hundred thousand saplings and live stumps continue to grow and die in a constant battle between the blight and the tree’s roots. Some shoots live long enough to produce a few seeds, then die back.
The American Chestnut is tenacious and is hanging in there while we work on solutions to the problem we caused ourselves. Hybridization and pure chestnut selection efforts are underway at the American Chestnut Foundation and American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation. While pure American Chestnuts will always die back from the blight (eventually), it’s important to plant as many as you can to keep their populations up and save genetic local diversity until a solution is found.
Also, keep in mind that while American Chestnut trees are monoecious (both male and female flowers on the same tree), they are self-incompatible. This means you need at least 2 Chestnut trees for pollination and to actually produce nuts.
These seeds are from conservationists and enthusiasts working to keep the American Chestnut alive . The parent trees are verified pure by either local extension programs and/or educational institutions.
Castanea dentata
AKA - American Chestnut
This tree is hard to find. We have limited stock as we are currently setting up germplasm preservation lots in our auxiliary site in southeastern PA. Seed sources are from healthy trees without signs of blight and confirmed pure.
There are currently tens of thousands of wild pure American Chestnut trees in the eastern United States. However, they succumb to the introduced Chestnut Blight at a young age and rarely make it to maturity, with only their stumps surviving to send out new shoots that again succumb to the blight after a few years. Thus, they cannot reproduce effectively and are endangered in the United States. Really, they are “functionally extinct” in that they no longer play a role in their local ecosystems. However, they are not completely extinct. Several hundred thousand saplings and live stumps continue to grow and die in a constant battle between the blight and the tree’s roots. Some shoots live long enough to produce a few seeds, then die back.
The American Chestnut is tenacious and is hanging in there while we work on solutions to the problem we caused ourselves. Hybridization and pure chestnut selection efforts are underway at the American Chestnut Foundation and American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation. While pure American Chestnuts will always die back from the blight (eventually), it’s important to plant as many as you can to keep their populations up and save genetic local diversity until a solution is found.
Also, keep in mind that while American Chestnut trees are monoecious (both male and female flowers on the same tree), they are self-incompatible. This means you need at least 2 Chestnut trees for pollination and to actually produce nuts.
These seeds are from conservationists and enthusiasts working to keep the American Chestnut alive . The parent trees are verified pure by either local extension programs and/or educational institutions.
Origins of seed lots
2023 - PA Ecotype
This seed lot originated as wild trees in Mercer County PA, planted on land in Sandy Lake PA in the 1980s by Charles Haun. 250 local wild trees were planted on his 206 acre farm. He soon after passed away, but the land continues to be farmed by his son Fred. However, the Chestnut orchard was eventually infected with blight and overgrown. A Penn State Extention Agent collected seed from this location to work with the American Chestnut Foundation, which keeps tabs on the Haun orchard for Germplasm Conservation.
For more backstory on the Hahn Orchard, please see links below:
https://tacf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Journal_vol22_01spring08.pdf?x99819 page 43
https://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/chestnut/newsletters/pa-tacf-news/pa-tacf-1301 pages 7 and 8
2023 - WI Ecotype
This seed lot is from a wild tree in WI, most likely an undocumented transplant from the east coast. Many people tried to save the American Chestnut by growing them outside of the reach of blight hotspots around the Appalachians.
Samples of the parent tree were sent and verified as Castenea dentata by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
2023 - OR Ecotype
These seeds were collected from an isolated pair of blight-free pure American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees found in Western Oregon. It is believed that the original seed source for these came from the original western settlers, who brought American Chestnut seeds with them from the east coast during their migration west. As this process started before the introduction of the blight, many American Chestnuts were transplanted to the west coast and thrive blight free in isolated locations. The parent trees were confirmed pure American Chestnut by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
