WSSC 3 – Seed Orchard
This is the first seed orchard planted in Maryland.
Our first planting was in 2012 – 67 BC3F2s from Thorpewood. We have made additional plantings each year and now have nearly 3000 trees planted. Many thanks to all our members and the volunteers from the University of Maryland, College Park; Montgomery College; and Prince Georges Community College. This orchard will produce the first Maryland B3F3 seed and trees.
Address:
Triadelphia Lake Rd., Sunshine, Montgomery Co.
Directions:
As a starting point, find your way to Sunshine, which is at the intersection of MD 650 (New Hampshire Ave,) and MD 97 (Georgia Ave). From Sunshine, go 1/2 mile north to a right turn on Triadelphia Lake Rd. Proceed about a quarter mile to a gate immediatly past a residential driveway. Proceed about one third mile on a rutted dirt drive to the orchard.
Contacts:
Ron Kuipers: MDTACF
Jim Benton: Washington Suburban Sanitary, Commission Watershed Manager
Mark Grzeszkiewicz: groundskeeper
Location:
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
5 CommentsComment on Facebook
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