Thursday, October 6, 2016

Chestnut Harvest Time

A Kentucky American chestnut bur reveals seven viable nuts!


It is a sure sign of fall when the chestnut burs begin to open up, revealing their tasty nuts inside.  Although many burs only reveal 1 to 3 viable nuts, sometimes more, the above pictured bur with seven nuts was quite a surprise to see!  This is an indication of good pollination of the female flower that formed this bur.  Unfortunately, when poor pollination occurs or a single tree doesn't have an unrelated tree nearby to provide pollen, a bur can form with no viable nuts inside.  It is easy to tell these because the "nut" will just be a thin, somewhat shrivelled, shell that does not contain an actual nut inside.

Now is a good time to get out into the woods to find chestnut trees by locating burs on the ground.  If you find a tree that is producing burs, PLEASE see if you can find viable nuts inside the burs!  If you do, KY-TACF would be very interested in obtaining some of these nuts to add to their Germplasm Conservation Orchards of pure American chestnut trees!  If you locate such a nut producing tree in the woods of Kentucky, please contact KY-TACF President, Rick Caldwell, by emailing him at rcaldwell@bernheim.org to let him know.  Be sure to document the location of the tree!

Enjoy the cooler weather and the soon to be changing leaves!

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