Chestnut is a common name for several species of trees in the genus Castanea, in the Beech family Fagaceae.
Neither the horse chestnut (family Sapindaceae) nor the water chestnut (family Cyperaceae) is closely related to the chestnut, though both are so named for producing similar nuts. The name Castanea comes from an old Latin name for the sweet chestnut.
American Chestnuts are special and rare.
Thanks! I suppose I’ll have to start using Wiki, although I’m not too sure about something I could edit myself....
Appreciate your reply.
.....American Chestnuts are special and rare.....
Special, but not as rare as you might think.
The blight kills the main stem but can not go underground. The root structure remains intact ans puts up shoots. The mountains of Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia host many many trees grown from the roots. Hikers in our mountains know that there are many locations with such growth. These trees generally are reinfected at around 10 years or so and the cycle resumes.
A program of the ACCF takes scions from All American Chestnut produced trees with blight resistance trees are grafted to these powerful old root structures.
I should note that the ACCF program is the work of Dr Gary Griffin at VA Tech and his counterpart in West Virginia.
Over the years, volenteer cooperators such as my self have planted many thoisand seeds and seedlings all across the species range.