Chestnut photos--Summer 2004
(all photos taken by Joe Schibig unless otherwise
indicated)
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Bucket truck pollinators bag a mother tree in Waynesville N. C.
This flowering chestnut is in picturesque Waynesville, North Carolina, and is located only a couple of miles from Francis Cove, the location of an American chestnut tree with a diameter of 17 feet; that huge chestnut was cut sometime before 1915. The baggers/pollinators (Paul Sisco, Austin Wagner, and Steven Slack) put 111 bags on this tree; one bag may enclose more than one bur and each bur can produce up to 3 nuts. Since the pollen was from a backcross2 (BC2) tree at Meadowview Research Farms, the nuts will produce BC3 (backcross3) trees which will be 15/16 American and 1/16 Chinese; some of the progeny are expected to show moderate resistance to blight.
What a great environment to work in!
(Photo taken in early July, 2004, by Paul Sisco)
Austin Wagner, on the left, and Steven Slack, on the right, are the two TACF interns for western North Carolina. Paul Sisco took this photo on Goat Bald in the Nantahala National Forest in Macon County, NC -- elevation 4890 feet. The bald is maintained by the Forest Service as a wildlife feeding area. Flowering chestnut trees are found around the edges. Paul, Austin, and Steven were both pollinating and bagging, since the flowers on the trees were at various stages of development. On some of the trees, the male catkins were not yet blooming. The view is to the west, with the Nantahala, Snowbird, and Unaka Mountains in the distance. All that the eye can see is prime chestnut country. (this caption is derived from an email sent by Paul Sisco)
Paul Sisco and a great view of the North
Carolina mountains
(Photo taken in July, 2004, by one of Paul's interns)
Paul Sisco, TACF Science Coordinator for the southeastern region, is standing on Goat Bald--what a great view of the clouds and mountains behind him.
A Pennsylvanian family poses in front of a
pollinated chestnut on the Moses Cone Estate near Blowing
Rock, NC.
(June, 2004 photo; from Paul Sisco)
This family is from Quakertown, PA. where the kids had planted chestnut trees at their elementary school. Paul Sisco used BC2 pollen from Meadowview on this tree. This blighted tree consists of three main stems from a stump. It is at an elevation of 3561 feet -- some chestnuts are found at even higher elevations.
The dreaded Root Rot (Ink Disease)
(Photos by Paul Sisco, July 2004)
Austin Wagner, Carolinas Chapter intern, is holding a chestnut seedling killed by Phytophthora cinnamomi, root rot disease. The seedling was at the Piedmont farm of Dr. Joe James in Seneca, South Carolina. The Piedmont region was hit hard by this disease in the 1800s and still plagues that region and elsewhere. It is especially troublesome in poorly drained soils. Phytophthora root rot is spread by zoospores that travel in water channels through wet soil. It infects and kills the roots, and the infection spreads up the stem as a black, sunken canker. When the canker is sliced open, a black liquid often oozes out. Thus Phytophthora root rot is called the "Ink Disease" in Europe, because of this black ooze. Seedlings that die of the root rot will wilt and die rather quickly within a period of a few days or weeks. (information mostly from Paul Sisc
This "dog turd" fungus wins no beauty contest, but it is a
chestnut's "friend".
(Photo from Paul Sisco, July, 2004)
This unappetizing fungus, Pisolithus tinctorius, has merit in that it forms a mycorrhizal association with the roots of chestnut trees, thus facilitating the tree's absorption of soil nutrients and moisture; the fungal hyphae (threads), interweaving with the tree roots, may also protect the chestnut tree from certain pathogenic fungi. This photo was taken at a backcross three (BC3) chestnut orchard near Ashville, North Carolina. For more info on this fungus, go to Tom Volk's page at: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/jun2003.html
Maryland-TACF members pollinating a chestnut with their feet on terra firma
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The inoculation crew (MA-TACF members) at the
Thorpewood orchard in Thurmont, Maryland
(Summer 2004 photo by Bill Gallup)
Cicadas plague chestnut trees in Maryland
(Summer 2004 photos by Bill Gallup)
Pollination team from Volunteer State Community
College pollinates a 65-ft. tall chestnut in Clay Co., Tn.
(photos on June 21, 2004)
From left to right, Mark, Marty, Rex, Brian, and Tim pose in
front of an impressive chestnut near Hermitage Springs, Tennessee. BC3 pollen
from Meadowview and pollen from Bendabout Farms in Chattanooga were used on this
tree.
A total of 208 bags were applied. Marty is a bucket truck operator for Tri-County Electric. For two years now, Tri-County Electric has graciously provided a bucket truck and operator to make this operation possible.
TACF intern, Mark Vance, relaxes after putting
over 200 bags on the Gilliam tree in Sumner County, Tn.
(photo on June 19, 2004)
On June 19, Mark Vance and Joe Schibig pollinated three mother trees in Clay, Macon, and Sumner counties, Tennessee. These counties are in the eastern Highland Rim region which is relatively rich in mother trees.
A professional climber skillfully ascends a
huge American chestnut in Jackson County, Tennessee, to obtain its male catkins.
(photo on June 18, 2004)
Scot, a professional arborist who lives close to Cookeville, Tennessee, volunteered his time and skill to help us acquire precious DNA (locked within the pollen grains) from this large surviving American chestnut. The bulging cankers all along the trunk indicate that this tree has been fighting off the blight for many years. It may have the right stuff and should be used in the breeding program of both the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation and The American Chestnut Foundation, but its female flowers were inaccessible, so we are going to capture this trees genes via its pollen. We used pollen from this tree to pollinate three other worthy trees in the region including the magnificent Adair Co. tree in Ky. I have also made successful nut grafts (clones) of this tree.
Mark Vance and Joe Schibig applying the Jackson
Co. tree pollen to the female flowers of the Adair Co. tree in Ky.
(Photo taken on June 22, 2004, by Mike French)
This huge Adair Co. chestnut produced over 1000 nuts last fall and will likely repeat that this fall. Mark Vance and I applied 100 bags to this tree. The other 900 or so bags were applied by Mike French, Kenneth Pyles, and others. Mark and I are hoping the nuts from our cross of the Adair Co. tree with the Jackson Co. tree will produce some superior progeny. Hill Craddock at the University of Tennessee/Chattanooga and I have also cloned the Adair Co. tree. One has to admire this tree which has withstood the blight, a lightning strike, and a bulldozer scrape--it is a tough survivor.
Mike French, TACF intern in Ky., prepares to
pollinate the big Adair Co. chestnut
(Photo taken on June 22, 2004)
Durable chestnut rails and posts still grace
the landscape in Clay and Macon counties, Tennessee
(photos on June 21, 2004)
This beautiful rustic rail fence (left photo) on Rickey Brandon's property in Macon Co. is still intact after about 60 years of weathering. The old chestnut post (right photo) in Clay Co. has also stood the test of time and weathering.
American chestnut flowers
(photo on June 21, 2004)
In this photo, pollen coated anthers burst from the long male catkins while a solitary female flower (the small green bur) sits at the base of a bisexual catkin. American chestnuts are not self-fertile--they require cross pollination from another chestnut in the vicinity. The pollen is naturally carried by wind and insects. The sweet pungent fragrance of chestnut flowers must be overpowering to insect pollinators while the chestnut perfume is certainly noticed, if not appreciated, by human pollinators.
American chestnut flowers at full anthesis
(photo by Tom Pugel)
In this photo, the male catkins are in full anthesis (fully mature), while the male part of the bisexual catkin is still immature. The female flower (tiny bur) at the base of the bisexual catkin is ready for pollination. Note the incurved teeth along the leaf margin--an American chestnut trait.
Yikes!!
(Photos on 6/29/2004)
While inventorying chestnut trees at Mammoth Cave National Park, Mark Vance placed his feet within one foot of this timber rattlesnake. I was a comfortable 20 feet away when I heard a loud noise from Mark at the moment he noticed his proximity to the venomous snake. This snake did not give a warning--no rattling or shaking his tail. Had Mark stepped on this snake, he might have leaped off the ledge down into the Green River gorge and I would now be recruiting a new chestnut hunter. The photo below shows the beautiful valley cut out by the Green River; we were searching for chestnuts along the northern bluffs of the Green River when we encountered this rare serpentine species.
A slug eating lunch at Mammoth Cave National Park
(photo on June 29, 2004)
The same day Mark and I encountered the rattler, we noticed a more diminutive and harmless denizen of Mammoth Cave National Park. This slug was peacefully munching away at some kind of weird dew-exuding fungus. If any of you readers know what fungus this is, please drop me an email and inform me. Please note the Virginia pine seedling which had germinated on the surface of the old stump. This pine is common at the park and is sometimes found on dry sites inhabited by the American chestnut.
Hey, this is not an American chestnut.
(photo on July 1, 2004)
It's an Allegheny chinkapin (Castanea pumila). Mark Vance has inventoried about 300 small American chestnut specimens on a 400 acre tract of land on the Cumberland Plateau, which is owned by Tennessee Technological University, but has found only two chinkapins. They appear to be scarce on most of the plateau in Kentucky and Tennessee and are very rare in areas farther west in these two states. The chinkapin usually is a shrub and may be distinguished from the American chestnut by its shorter leaves and hairs on its leaf undersurfaces and on the tips of its twigs; American chestnut leaves and twigs are generally devoid of hairs except along the major leaf veins. Chinkapins are found in dry woods along with American chestnuts and sometimes hybridizes with them.
An appetizing chestnut associate
(photo on July 1, 2004)
While inventorying chestnut trees on the sandy, well-drained soil of the Cumberland Plateau near Crossville, Tennessee, we encountered some rain-drenched fruiting blueberry bushes. Their presence usually indicates acidic soil and, if fruiting, they indicate that at least a moderate amount of sunshine is striking the forest floor. Such sites are often productive hunting grounds for chestnut sprouts.
Chestnut saplings in Williamson County on the
western Highland Rim
(Photo on July 13, 2004)
This dead chestnut sapling was about 30 years old and had grown very slowly--note the narrow growth rings; a 30-year old American chestnut is a rarity these days--most chestnut stems get nailed by the blight and/or other afflictions before they reach 15 years of age. Also note the flat-topped appearance of the live sprout which is an adaptation to shady conditions; broad, thin leaves are also characteristic of a shaded chestnut. This sprout was one of 32 live chestnut trees we found on Greg Weaver's property in Williamson Co., Tennessee. They were mainly on high ground (about 900 feet) on dry sites dominated by oaks and hickories in a highly dissected region of the western Highland Rim.
In the picture below, Mark Vance (left) and Greg Weaver (right) stand next to a more rapidly growing sapling; unfortunately, most of its top had been killed by a girdling canker.
Ghosts of monster chestnuts
(Photos from Paula Weaver)
The upper photo is of Greg Weaver and his son standing by a 11 1/2-foot diameter chestnut stump on the Ramsay Cascades trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is about 1.6 miles from the trailhead 20 feet off the right side of the trail. Most of the trunks visible in the photograph are large dead chestnut sprouts. None are alive. A few of the trunks are living hemlock trees growing in the stump. The lower photo shows Greg by a 9-foot diameter double stemmed chestnut stump on the Ramsay Cascades trail, 1.5 miles from the trailhead, 20 feet off the left side of the trail. (information from Paula Weaver)
Fine Chestnut Furniture
A library paneled in chestnut
A 200-year old secretary made of chestnut and mahogany
Pennsylvania-TACF pollinators far above terra firma
(photo submitted by Paul Sisco, July 2004)
This tall, but accessible, chestnut tree is located somewhere
on Boone Mountain.
(photo submitted by Paul Sisco, July 2004)
BC3 X BC3 yields BC3F2
(Photo submitted by Tom Pugel)
Samantha Carpenter (foreground) and Jamie Paul bag female flowers of a selected BC3 tree at Reels Corner in Pennsylvania for intercrossing with another BC3 tree screened for resistance. The progeny will be designated as the BC3F2 generation; some of these will show strong resistance to blight and will be intercrossed to produce a BC3F3 generation--American chestnuts with predominantly "American" genes but with the "Chinese" genes for blight resistance. All of he BC3F3 generation should be homozygous for blight resistance and should breed true for this trait. The Pennsylvania Chapter started earlier and so is further along in its breeding program than the other state chapters of The American Chestnut Foundation.
Pennsylvania pollinators
(Photo on July 3, 2004; submitted by Lloyd Lupfer of the
PA chapter)
A counselor and five teenagers from the Long acre Leadership Program pollinate a chestnut tree in the Tuscarora State Forest, Perry County, PA.
Young volunteers plant chestnut orchard at Shade
Sportsmans Club, Cairnbrook, Pa.
From left to right in the photo are; Brandon Ross, Dusty Kohan, Jessie Kohan, and Sam Thomas. This new orchard is a cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) orchard. Jessie Kohan initiated the involvement of the Shade Sportsmans Club with TACF's chestnut restoration efforts.
PA-TACF member, Joe Duganich, stands by the
largest known American chestnut in Pennsylvania
(2004 photo; photographer unknown)
Donald Dorn and Andrea Hill in an orchard with
nine-year old BC1 and pure American chestnut trees; 31 of the 158 original
trees still survive in competition with aspen trees.
(Summer 2004 photo by Adam Karl, PA chapter intern)
Bill Gallup, summer intern with the Pennsylvania Chapter of
The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), in an abandoned Chinese chestnut
orchard.
The grandchildren of PA-TACF member, Lee
Saufley, are assisting with the inoculations at Hummelstown orchard. They are
taping the inoculation points of a seven year old BC3 tree (source of
resistance--Graves).
(June 2004 photo by Bill Gallup)
A rare natural seedling by a fence row in Sumner County,
Tennessee
Zack crouches next to a first year American chestnut seedling which he discovered beneath its mother tree. I have seen over 500 naturally occurring American chestnut specimens in the field and, of these, I am certain that only four were seedlings--products of sexual reproduction. Chestnut trees often reproduce asexually by sending up new sprouts when others in a cluster die from the blight, but seed production is extremely rare because most flowering trees are isolated. Two trees must be close enough for cross pollination which is necessary for seed production.
Tom Warhol, Massachusetts-TACF Field Operations Manager,
pollinates a mother tree with WV167 (Graves BC2) pollen.
Rufin van Bossuyt
pollinates a mother tree in Harwich, Mass, on Cape Cod. The pollen is GL94
(Graves BC2 pollen).
