In honor of Tree Tuesday I would like to highlight a lost giant which dominated most of North America prior to the start of the 20th century
I’m sure you’ve heard of the old holiday tune which features the line, “chestnuts roasting on an open flame”. Well this is the tree which inspired the line. The American Chestnut tree!
The American chestnut tree dominated the forests which stretched from the mid-Atlantic region to Maine in pre-20th century America. It grew to be much taller than the oaks we have around the country which drop copious amounts of acorns in the fall.
Chestnut Range:
Here’s a good photo to give you a sense of the size of the tree at full maturity.
And every year it would dump lots and I mean LOTS of chestnuts on the happy residents around it without fail. (Approximately 600lbs or 270 Kilos)
These chestnuts could be dried and ground into flour which could be stored easily over the winter and used to make all sorts of yummy and highly nutritious foods. (It’s like having a giant wheat field growing over your house!)
If you’ve ever driven around the US and seen the many streets and roads named after chestnuts then you get a sense of how important the tree was in early American life.
So what? Why should you care about the American chestnut tree?
Well because it is now extinct unfortunately and along with it all of that easy to harvest flour which early inhabitants of the America’s counted on for food. Sadly it has been killed off by a virulent blight originally imported by overeager horticulturalists in New York at the beginning of the 20th century.
The trees on the left have the blight and will soon be dead.
Dead trees looks like spiny fingers poking in the sky.
But don’t lose hope because their is a happy ending here. That picture I showed you before.
This one...
Those trees on the right are also American chestnut trees and have been genetically altered to resist the blight. So one day we will have giant wheat fields (American chestnut trees) growing over our houses once again. And who knows, maybe they will become a global phenomenon many decades from now. My fingers are crossed for that.
Have you ever tried roasting chestnuts before? Tell us about the experience in the comments section!
*The hard working folks at the American Chestnut Foundation are responsible for the restoration of this amazing tree. Please take a look at their website and consider becoming a supporting member if you are so inclined. (CH)
