American Chestnut Tree

The American chestnut tree was once the most common tree in Eastern forests. It is estimated that one in every four trees was a American chestnut tree, with the numbers totaling around 3-4 billion.

Unfortunately in our desire for new and exotic plants, we imported the Chinese chestnut tree in the early 1900s and with them a blight which the American chestnut tree wasn’t immune to. By 1950 almost every single one of the billions of American chestnuts fell victim to this blight and died.

There are wonderful efforts to restore the American chestnut. There are a few surviving chestnut trees that scientists have been crossing with the Chinese chestnut trees to try and breed in the Chinese trees immunity to the blight. It is a long process as the trees take almost a decade before they mature enough to breed.

Scientists are always looking for new sources of American chestnut trees to use in their breeding program. If you think you know of a mature American chestnut tree, there’s a reward offered.

Read about the great work The American Chestnut Foundation is doing to restore the American Chestnut here.