When I say "Large" American chestnuts, I'm talking about trees large enough and mature enough to produce flowers and fruits. Today, a  tree with a six-inch diameter is large for an American chestnut, but prior to the blight, six-inch chestnut trees would have been like little sticks standing next to the 100 foot giants.

 In this part of the country American chestnuts are  rare and trees old enough to produce fruits are very rare.  To find one is like finding a needle in a haystack.  What is nearly impossible to find is a living old tree that survived the initial annihilation of most chestnuts in the 1930s and has withstood repeated assaults from the blight, lightning, and man. Just such a tree still lives in Adair County, Kentucky.  It is one of  the largest American chestnuts still standing in its natural range (dbh 38 in., ht. 45 ft); it occurs in a fencerow which is on the boundary line of two landowners.  This solitary giant is the only American chestnut on the Highland Rim, known to me, that was standing when the blight ripped through Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1930s and which is alive today! The Owners of the property report that it was a mature tree when they moved there in the mid 1940s. Although it has many dead limbs and numerous cankers, it still has a lot of healthy tissue and has been producing many flowers and infertile fruits for decades. There is a large vertical scar high on one of the main trunks which looks like an old lightning hit.  Also, there is a large scar at the base of the tree which was probably caused by a dozer scrape years ago.  You have to admire a tree that has the vigor and fortitude to have survived all these environmental challenges. The identity was checked by Fred Hebard (TACF chestnut expert) who confirmed it as a pure American chestnut.  I do not know if its remarkable longevity is due to innate resistance to the blight or if it is because the fungus infecting it is hypovirulent or if it is due to  both.  TACF workers and foresters artificially pollinated the tree with pollen taken from TACF trees and hundreds of nuts were harvested last fall from this tree.  It will be interesting to see how the progeny of this tree develop.  As this is a very special tree, the exact location will be confidential; only selected individuals, researchers for example, will be taken to this tree by foresters--it is the closest thing on the Highland Rim  to the "Holy Grail" which has been sought by American chestnut enthusiasts.  Its protection is most important. Follow the link below to see photos of this tree.

 

The foresters in South Central Kentucky have done a fine job of locating large American chestnuts.  In Monroe County alone, three "huge" trees have been found.  Sarah Moore recently recognized two exceptional trees in southwestern Monroe County close to the Kentucky-Tennessee line as she was marking trees for cutting.  At first she thought it was a weird-looking hickory, but when she saw that the leaves were simple and not compound she knew that was not right; then she got a better look at the high altitude leaves and saw that they were toothed and lance-shaped and she knew she was standing next to a chestnut tree that was 60 feet tall and had a dbh of 14.4 inches; this is one of the tallest chestnut trees I have seen on the Highland Rim. Only the upper branches of the tree has foliage, the lower branches appear to have been killed from shading by surrounding trees.  There were no cankers or other signs of blight on this tree which is possibly 40 years old or older.  Sarah also found a second large tree (11.7 inches dbh and approximately 55 ft. tall) which had more foliage than the larger tree and this one was producing burs. The fruits we saw on the ground did not have fertile nuts in them, but this tree would be a good candidate for TACF's pollinating program since it will likely produce many flowers next year  and it is relatively accessible.  I have no doubt that these two trees are pure American chestnuts--the burs, leaves (no hairs on the undersurface of the leaves except along main veins), growth form, and the forested site all point to American chestnut, not to any Asian chestnut or hybrid.  The terrain is a broad ridge and the associated dominant trees are mature black oaks, white oaks, tulip poplar, mockernut hickory with sugar maple, red maple, blue beech and dead red cedar trees in the understory.   Interestingly, one little chestnut tree about one foot high was found under the 11.7 inch tree--perhaps it is a rare seedling. The owner of the property plans to have selected trees logged this winter.  That would release the two tall chestnut trees from competition and then perhaps both  trees would flower and pollinate one another.

 

 


The third largest American chestnut I have seen in Tennessee lives on a gently sloping ridge in Clay County, Tennessee.  This beautiful tree is completely free of blight, has a dbh of 10.5 inches and towers to 50 feet or more. It grew straight and tall after a timber harvest released it from competition 20 years ago.  Another nice American chestnut (6 in. dbh, height 40 ft.) was found close to this one, but it had a basal canker; we plan to apply mud to the cankered area--hopefully that will kill the blight fungus. Two other small live chestnut trees and one fairly large dead chestnut were also found in the vicinity of the big one.  Old nearby fence posts appear to be from chestnut trees, probably taken from that area.   Ray, the owner of the property, said he remembers seeing many dead chestnuts in that part of the county in the 1950s and that many of them were used for fencing, kindling, fence posts, etc.  The  live chestnuts are competing mainly with sourwood, red maple, american beech, and white oak.  The two big trees did not flower this year, but Ray plans to remove the competing trees next year. The increase in sunlight, moisture, and nutrients should lead to heavy flowering in both trees in two or three years.  They are close enough for cross pollination and should produce fertile nuts in a few years.

 

On a wooded ridge in Williamson County Tennessee, Lou  and Charles  observed a fruiting chestnut in October, 2002.  Lou described the tree as follows:  "From what I can tell, this tree is a pure American.  The trunk is about 10 inches dbh, maybe 14 inches @ the base.   There are numerous adventitious sprouts radiating from the base, likely a response to the stress of infection as this tree is rampant with blight. The main trunk is heavily blighted and insect damaged. ............ About 40% percent of the tree is still alive, and most of the young growth with smooth bark is blight free. Of the estimated 40 foot height, the top 20 feet consists of a dead 4 inch diameter central leader with only 3 or 4 side branches.  The tree has numerous burs; I opened one bur but found no viable seeds.  The predominate species in the vicinity of this tree are red, black, & white oaks, shagbark hickory, & tulip poplar. ......I inspected the leaf & stem samples from the tree & found no hairs on the leaves or stems.  This clearly contrasted with a 50/50 CxA hybrid dunstan seedling that I compared the samples to.  The known hybrid had clearly visible felt-like hairs.  The hybrid buds were round shaped where the other tree's buds were conical. "  

 

One of the largest American chestnuts reported in Tennessee in recent years was a tree in Giles County.  It had a dbh of 14 inches and a height of 57 ft., but died two summers ago.  It was on a ridge top (elevation about 1000 ft.) and was surrounded by tulip poplar, American beech, black walnut, wild cherry, white ash, shagbark hickory, red hickory, and dogwood trees. Dwayne Estes showed me this tree in February, 2002.

I observed an impressive American chestnut tree in Montgomery County, Tennessee in the 1970s.  It was on a ridge in the Palmyra community and had an approximate diameter at breast height (dbh) of about 7 inches and an approximate height of 35 feet.  My uncle had noticed the tree in flower and pointed it out to me; he was old enough to remember what flowering American chestnuts looked like and that they were once abundant in some parts of the county.  It  produced mostly infertile nuts for a few years, but was cankered from years of fighting the blight fungus.  That tree perished in the mid 1970s. Click the thumbnail below to see photos of that tree.

                                                                

 

Dr. Chester, an Austin Peay State University Botany professor, Larry Carpenter, Al Lyons, and I observed a few sprouts from old stumps in Land Between the Lakes, Trigg County, Kentucky in the mid 1970s.  They were on a dry wind-blasted site overlooking Kentucky lake.  The stumps were of medium size trees that had been cut probably in the 1930s or 1940s, the time when the blight was sweeping through the state.  Throughout the country, many of the dead chestnut trees stood for years in the forest and the rot-resistant wood remained valuable as lumber for a long time.  Some people cut their chestnut trees even before the blight took them because they thought they would die anyway from the disease. This wholesale cutting of live sexually-reproducing trees may have eliminated some trees that might have had some genetic resistance to the blight and which might have produced progeny with blight resistance.  We will never know. We will never know.  Fruits were observed on one of the larger sprouts in 1978.  Recently we have found Trigg County, Ky. to have the most surviving American chestnuts of any county we have searched. The photos below are of the Trigg County, Ky. stumps and sprouts.

                                                   

 

In 1981, I found  another sizeable fruiting American chestnut, dbh > 8 inches, height > 30 ft.  This heavily blighted chestnut  was on an upland site in northern Sumner County, close to Portland, Tennessee. The young lady next to the tree was Kim McFadden, one of my former Dendrology students.

                                                               

 

Back in April, 2002, Billy Durham showed me a large living American chestnut in Middle Tennessee.  It has a dbh  > 8 inches and a height of about 45 feet. It has swollen places on the trunk close to its base, evidence that it fought off the blight years ago.  The upper parts of the tree show no signs of blight.  It is merrily growing at about 920 feet on a steep south-facing slope close to the summit of a high hill in northern Sumner County.  A large red maple is growing close to this tree, but thus far this chestnut has withstood the competition as well as the blight.  Unfortunately, the shading has restricted its flowering.

 

Recently, I discovered a large, healthy American chestnut (dbh = 11 inches, height approx. 45 feet.) growing on a very steep bluff overlooking Kentucky Lake in Land Between the Lakes (Trigg County, Ky.).  This is one of the largest American chestnut that I have thus far observed on the Highland Rim of Southern Kentucky.  It had beautiful, straight form and was competing very well with sourwood and chestnut oak trees.  Rarely do you find an American chestnut old enough or tall enough to reach the canopy and poke its crown above the surrounding trees.  This tree showed only one scar on its trunk and it was completely healed; this is in contrast to most large American chestnut trees that usually show many old cankers along the trunk.  Also noteworthy is the fact that this tree is growing on a very droughty site facing northwest where the strong winds blow unimpeded over the great expanse of Kentucky Lake.  The soil of this steep slope is acidic (evidenced by the presence of many blueberry bushes) and rocky (cherty).  The site is close to the westernmost limit of the American chestnut's former range in Kentucky. It's relative old age, large size, and overall health indicate it may have genes conferring some blight resistance. It is possible that it has been lucky and just hasn't been exposed to a virulent strain of the chestnut Blight, but this seems unlikely since some other nearby smaller chestnut trees show obvious cankers and stem death from the blight.  This tree is also exceptional in that it produced copious flowers and fruits this year, but it would be difficult for TACF to pollinate this tree  because of the steep terrain and the height of the tree.

 

Two large American Chestnuts occur on a dry south-facing slope (elevation about 950 ft.) in Davidson County, Tn., close to the Radnor Lake Natural Area.  Growing on this dry, cherty site were huge old chestnut oaks, sourwood, and mountain  laurel (rare in Middle Tennessee), but of chief interest were two large, healthy American Chestnuts, one with a dbh of 7 inches and height of 50 ft. and the other with a dbh of 6.2 inches and a height of 40 ft.  Remarkably, they show no signs of blight at all and the larger tree is bearing fruits.  The tall hills in this area are outliers of the western Highland Rim, but are within the Central Basin region of Tennessee.  American chestnuts are not found on the thin calcium-rich soils of the Basin but are found occasionally on the deeper, well-drained acidic soils of the Highland Rim.

 

An interesting American chestnut lives on an upper southeast-facing slope (elevation 1000 ft.) in Edgar Evins State Park, Dekalb County, Tennessee. Its dbh is 5.8 inches and its height is 45 feet, but it was not flowering in 2002.  The tree is growing from a sunken area in the soil indicating that a large chestnut had died and fell in that spot probably in the 1930s or early 1940s when the Blight ripped through the state. There probably were other trunks that arose  from the root system but died and decayed over the years.  Like most other "big" chestnuts we have found, this tree was found growing on a dry site in acidic, cherty soil and in the company of chestnut oak, sourwood, serviceberry, and blueberry bushes.  Mountain laurel was also present at this site.  On such sites it may be that slow growth, the soil conditions and/or the somewhat open canopy has/have something to do with chestnuts living longer (some as old as 30 years) and attaining respectable size (several are 5 inches or greater in dbh).  In contrast, six American chestnut trees with a dbh greater than 4 inches were found on a mesic north-facing slope in Sumner County, Tennessee, but all had grown fast after logging and died from blight and/or other stresses before they were 17 years old. 

 

On a wooded south-facing slope in Metcalfe County, Ky., I observed an American chestnut tree that grew to 38 feet in height and had a dbh of six inches. It was 14 years old when it died from the the blight six years ago; it grew fast following the last logging of the area about 20 years ago, but it was shaded by a beech tree, so it never developed the energy to flower and fruit.  When it died, there were no more sprouts from the root collar this time.  Its death was final, just one more victim of the relentless blight.  Below are thumbnails of this tree and stump fragments of an American chestnut found on a  nearby ridge. These durable fragments were put to use as cover for a deer stand.

                                                        

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