The American Chestnut

Types of Nuts Acorn Bay Laurel Nut Black Walnut Hazelnut Types of Nuts Types of Fruit

When the English colonists arrived, the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) dominated the forest landscape of the Eastern United States.

It turns out that early Americans literally loved their chestnuts to death.

In the first age of American globalization, starting at the turn of the twentieth century, Americans began importing Chestnut Trees from Asia. Asian Chestnut trees contained a fungus that American Chestnut trees were unable to tolerate, which led to massive die-offs of American Chestnuts up and down the East Coast.

The top picture shows an American Chestnut grown on the West Coast. Today researchers are working on fungus resistant American Chestnut hybrids as the key for restoring this once hardy species.