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It’s not extinct and won’t go extinct. It doesn’t live in its natural range but there are wild stands outside which haven’t been exposed to chestnut blight, and there’s a genetically engineered variety which is resistant to the disease and which may be released into the wild soon.
I don’t know if the blight resistant ones are ready just yet. Last I knew, the results were promising but inconsistent.
They’re ready, just waiting on government approval
Thank goodness for that. I heard there is a French variety that comes to crop within about twelve years, that also has resistance to chestnut blight. I was pleased, very pleased.
We did get quite a bit of Wormy Chestnut from it. I knew a few people in the mountains of NC whose families got quite rich off the stuff, actually. No, not the wood stained like it, but the real stuff. (By the time I saw it used in construction as a kid, it was some of the first generations of chestnut that was recycled from older houses. I didn’t see the stuff till the mid-80’s, so the wood was already well aged.)
People have probably found ways to artificially make it by now, but wood from the original trees that were killed was beautiful when used by a good architect and designer.
I wonder if the European species of chestnut are going to meet the same fate. For the past ten years every tree I see has signs of disease, by mid summer the leaves are becoming brown.
My dad has been obsessed with this my whole life. The dude just really likes American chestnut trees.
He’s part of an advocacy organization that is testing blight resistant genetic hybrids, and planting chestnuts in their yards to preserve them in the meantime.
If you, too want to be obsessed with chestnut trees, I believe it’s tacf.org
They very much still exist Your welcome.
Oh, my parents house still has chestnut trees that we get chestnuts from in like mid fall
I’ve got chestnut trees in my yard, but they’re Japanese chestnuts – yours might be, too.
Interesting. Im looking at how to tell the difference and I think you’re right, they do seem to be more like the Japanese type. Thanks, the more I know.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a chestnut. I’ve seen them used as decoration at Christmas, and songs and stories that involve roasting them and eating them but the only kind of chestnut I have ever put in my mouth has been a water chestnut. And I don’t think those are actually nuts.
Most nuts kinda taste similar to me anyway. Walnuts, peanuts, cashews, pistachios, etc… The differences in taste are so subtle I don’t really have a preference. They’re all good.
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