Castanea dentata

On Friday, I received fifteen American Chestnuts (Castanea dentata) from the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation. For a donation of $20.00 U.S.D., they will send you fifteen nuts for planting. These nuts come from 100% American parentage. The mother trees are resistant to Chestnut Blight, and the A.C.C.F. anticipates that at least 10% of the offspring will be blight resistant. For those of you who do not know, American Chestnuts were once a dominant species in eastern North American hardwood forests. Around A.D. 1900, Chesnut Blight (a lethal fungus) was introduced to the United States from Asia. Within fifty years, more than 99% of the naturally occurring trees were dead.

For more information, visit the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation. The American Chestnut Foundation is a similar organization. Both groups seek to restore the chestnut to its former glory.