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TOPIC: Chinese Chestnuts_Hendersonville NC
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/0ed2d573ba231f65?hl=en
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== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Mon, Jun 16 2008 8:57 am
From: James Parton


ENTS,

Saturday before going to the Barbecue Festival in Tryon NC, on my way to Staples to pick up the church bulletin I noticed 4 really nice chestnut trees off of Sugarloaf Rd near the intersection with Howard Gap Rd. Stopping to check them out I found them to be Chinese chestnuts. They were flowering profusely with a quite strong musky fragrance. I have noticed a number of flowering chestnut trees around Hendersonville NC over the last week. The majority are probably Chinese and Japanese chestnuts. I have always read that the Asian chestnuts had the growth form of an apple tree. True, they are bushier than the American and European species but I know of one in a yard that I pass going to work everyday that is about 60 feet tall. I have never seen an apple tree that tall. 50 feet maybe. Most apple trees in the surrounding orchards here are pruned to no more than 15 feet so they can be picked easily. More like apple bushes.

The Chinese chestnuts are really pretty. I hope to go back during the fall and get me a few nuts from them. It is nice to see big chestnuts, even though they are not our native ones.

I measured the tallest of the four trees. It was 40.47 feet tall and 6' 1" in girth.

James Parton

== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Mon, Jun 16 2008 10:09 am
From: ForestRuss@aol.com


James:

The Chinese chestnut trees in central WV just started flowering in the past
couple of days.

Russ

== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Mon, Jun 16 2008 8:24 pm
From: Randy Brown


Hi James,

Here's an asian chestnut growing in forest setting. I believe it's
japanese. 

One of ACF people I talked to said Japanese chestnuts fool
a lot of people because them grow fairly straight....and I would be
one of them, I thought this tree was America for many years..till  Carl
showed me the big ones in Cook...oops).

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TOPIC: Chinese Chestnuts_Hendersonville NC
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/0ed2d573ba231f65?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Mon, Jun 16 2008 9:03 pm
From: James Parton


Randy,

Yes, upon seeing this tree for the first time I would have been
estatic! A huge American! But the leaves of the Japanese are
considerably different between the Japanese and American Chestnut
species. But still, this is outstanding. I am still a bit up in the
air on the id of a couple of nice chestnuts in the Coleman Boundary
area of Pisgah National Forest. There are two very American-Like trees
there but the leaves are a bit different and the trees form is not
quite the straight tall form of the typical Am Chestnut. But the
leaves do not seem to match the Asian species. It may still be an
American but could be a Hybrid. I plan to re-visit the trees and
collect some leaves to mail off to The American Chestnut Foundation.

James P.