Ozark Chinquapin

[theozarkan]

Anyone ever came across one? I haven't as far as I know. 

I thought about joining the organization in the link below to get seeds but three to five seeds for thirty dollars and my tree seed planting skills it just doesn't add up. I do hope they are successful in getting these going again though. 

I think I may be better off ordering some blight resistant hybrid chestnuts. I ordered some Chinese chestnuts one time and got four of eight to live. When they got old enough to produce it turned out they were just sawtooth oaks. 


There are two things I'd like to do with chestnuts.

1.  Roast some over an open fire. 
2.  Finish out a hog on them. 



ozarkchinquapinmembership.org/about-the-tree/

[macmex]

I've heard of this fellow and the project to restore this tree. It's a WONDERFUL idea! Hopefully the Ozark Chinquapin is more resistant to our conditions than the regular eastern chestnut. I planted one of those about 6 years ago and it hasn't grown more than an inch or two In fact, it may have died last year. I need to check.

The basic premise of Bost's work is that there are resistant trees and by crossing them and planting the seed on a fairly large scale, it should be possible to restore this endangered species. I think his point is well taken. But there would certainly be a high failure rate among the first seedlings. I may look into it though. It would be wonderful to grow these!

[rosecongou]

Oikos Tree Crops has some Castanea pumila seedlings for sale, along with a hybrid Allegheny chinquapin x Chinese chestnut. The hybrid is grown from seeds that are apparently from trees not showing signs of blight, so that might be a bit closer to what you were looking for. Maybe grow one or two and try to graft cuttings of the Ozark one to it? 

[boiledpeanut]

Can Chinquapins and American Chestnuts interbreed? I know there are two chestnut foundations, one is large and plans to use genetic modification and one that intends to find pure bred, american chestnuts au natural to breed out (without even natural interbreeding of the asian species).
rose I just ordered a chinquapin from Oikos myself

[john]

To the best of my knowledge all the Chestnuts (Castanea) should be able to be crossed with each other. I have a friend in Tennessee who is a part of a Chestnut project where he planted several acres on his farm with Chestnuts. They started the project many years ago by crossing the Eastern Chestnut with the Chinese. After many years of back crossing the american eastern chestnut into these lines they are now around 15/16 Eastern Chestnut and 1/15 chinese. The idea is that they are able to hold onto the disease resistance gene. So they only select the resistant ones to continue the project. He gave me seed and I have one growing in my yard. Several of his trees have succombed to the blight but some have survived.
I have heard stories of random trees that have escaped the blight for one reason or another. Those are ones that definitely should be looked into for breeding. The article I read said that the Ozark Chinquapin has the most genetic diversity out of any of the native chestnuts.
The American Chestnut was truly the dominant tree of this country. It is said that 1 out of every four trees was a chestnut throughout it's range. No species compares to that today in our eastern forests. I can still go for walks around here in the woods and there are many small chestnut trees still growing in the woods. I have to believe they will one day make a comeback, perhaps the Ozark Chinquapin will play a part in that.