Chestnut Background
Chestnut Science Resources
- American Chestnut History
- Native Range Map
- TACF Science Strategies
- TACF Resources
- Student Program
- American Chestnut Tree Identification Resources
- How to Plant Chestnuts
- Penn State Listserv – TACF Grower’s List
- Backcross Breeding Chart
- American Chestnut Cooperator’s Foundation
- Grafting Resources
- History of Chestnuts at Sugarloaf Mountain
Tree Identification
Is this an American chestnut tree?
TACF chestnut identification resources
Appalachian Trail MEGA-Transect American Chestnut Project Resources:
- American Chestnut Tree I.D. Resources for Onscreen Viewing
- Booklet Version for printing 20 pp on 5 sheets (both sides)
- Pack Along Version – for printing 8 double sided cards on 2 sheets of cardstock
The above pdf files are based on materials from TACF Southern Appalachian Regional Science Coordinator Paul Sisco’s web site and the TACF Field Guide.
Hypovirulence
Hypovirulence Treatment of Blight Cankers
Hypovirulence treatment outline prepared by Dr. Donald L. Nuss. (C. parasitica strains for tailored biocontrol of chestnut blight on individual trees)
Protocol for treatment of Sugarloaf East Field Trees August 4, 2007
Map of Sugarloaf East Field Trees treated August 4, 2007
TACF Biocontrol information
Grafting
Grafting Resources
Nut-grafting!
January and February are the best times to cut scions from American chestnut trees and graft them onto American chestnut nuts. If they grow, you will have a clone of your scion wood tree that can be planted in a new location. Carl Mayfield, shown above, is an expert on this method of propagation. He graciously allowed us to take video at his nut-grafting clinic last winter, and he wrote out detailed instructions for every step of preparation and nurture, which can be found here:
Student Program
American Chestnut Learning Materials
Links to materials available for download at no charge.
American Chestnut Educational Resources
A list of information provided by The American Chestnut Foundation.
The Legend of the American Chestnut Tree
A book written by students of the Poolesville High School, Kirby Carmack & Nicole Rodriguez, with Illustrations by Michael Torres.
The American Chestnut video by Thomas Nassif
An 18 minute video that tell the story of the chestnut and TACF, documents controlled pollination and shows the basics of hypo virulence.
American Chestnut Loaner Lab (University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and Towson University)
Download the teacher’s manual for the Chestnut Tree Lab. Loaner Lab kits made available to MD schools at no cost. A model for a national package to meet technology SOLs along with teaching chestnut science
Penn State Chestnut Growers Website
Everything a chestnut grower needs to know and much more, including back issues of the TACF Journal and other publications in pdf format.
Hypovirulence information (MDTACF)
This information covers the procedures volunteers can use to treat blight on surviving American chestnut trees.
Maryland Chapter Menu
National Facebook
Just a few years apart: the same wild American chestnut tree before and after chestnut blight took its toll.
Enter our 2026 Photo Contest from now until the end of December!
#americanchestnut #chestnutblight #ForestEcology #nativespecies #ForestConservation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
American chestnuts produce separate male flowers and bisexual flowers on the same tree?! What a fascinating reproductive strategy for a species once dominant across eastern forests. 🌿
#americanchestnut #treefacts #treeidentification #ForestEcology #SaveOurForests
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I have had these on the farm for years
BeeKeeper Mango
From looking at the leaves that is NOT an American chestnut. The leaves do not have the good fishhook profile on the edges, and from what can see they look like Japanese chestnut leaves which have small feathery edges.
Small Stem Assays involve inoculating young chestnut stems with the blight fungus and monitoring the resulting cankers, allowing researchers to assess how well different trees respond to infection.
#educational #Informative #americanchestnut #fieldwork #explore
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You don't find out if the tree is resistant until it matures. That could be a decade later.
I am always amazed how big you all can grow them in 1 year. That is how big my second year seed8 gs always are!
Last week, staff at TACF’s national office in Asheville joined Carolinas Chapter President Peggy McDonald, husband Bob, and Chapter board member Jon Taylor for a hike at Albert Mountain in Western NC to visit wild American chestnut trees in search of flowering catkins.
During their venture, the team also came across a few cool amphibians: a red-legged salamander, which only inhabits portions of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and a red-spotted newt, which is much more common, but its brilliant red is stunning!
Of course, the biggest thrill was seeing large surviving chestnut trees and, as the day wrapped up, collecting some beautiful catkins that were high in the canopy of a tree on the way down the mountain. Pollen collected from the catkins will be used in TACF’s southern region breeding program.
#hike #nature #getoutside #americanchestnut #pollination
6 CommentsComment on Facebook
Whoa. Fascinating that some mature American Chestnuts have survived the blight. Taking pollen from these survivors is such a great idea. I didn't realize there were any survivors in NC.
Ils sont en fleur au Québec aussi, ça fait du bien de les voir grandir.
Fantastic