November 3, 2002
DAMN FUNGUS:
The Chestnut's Chemical Arsenal (Rachael Moeller Gorman, Discover)The once-ubiquitous American chestnut tree, which was devastated by an Asian fungus in the early 1900s, is often portrayed as a weakling that crumpled when faced with an acute environmental challenge. David Van Lear of Clemson University in South Carolina now suggests that the chestnut was actually more like a forest bully. He and his colleagues have found that chestnut leaves contain natural herbicides that the tree uses to inhibit the growth of neighboring plants. This form of chemical combat may help explain how the tree rose to become a dominant species in the southern Appalachian woods. It may also help forest managers understand the likely impacts of current plans to reintroduce the chestnut into American forests.The American chestnut used to be king of the forest, growing to over 100 feet tall and from six to 17 feet wide. Chestnuts were a staple crop for many Appalachian families, who not only ate the nutritious and tasty nut and fed it to their livestock but also sold them to New York and other big cities for Christmas roasting.
When we were kids, the pretzel vendors on Manhattan sidewalks used to also sell bags of roasted chestnuts, which our grandfather loved. And we had several trees in our neighborhood, the nuts from which virtually begged to be thrown at random targets or, in those pre-Ritalin days, each other. Pity the kids who never get to enjoy the sheer tactile pleasure of rubbing a chestnut in their fist while scoping out a suitable target.
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 3, 2002 10:06 AM
You're a New Yorker?! How can I ever trust your paeans to small-town life again? Not that I trusted them before...
Here in Beantown there are still chestnut vendors, come winter time, and the nuts are still easily bought, and not too expensive, in the local Stop and Shop.
Grandpa was a Brooklynite his whole life. We were Jerseyans, until we were old enough to get out.
Posted by: oj at November 3, 2002 12:46 PMWhere I grew up we used unhusked Black Walnuts as weapons. They can put a real hurt on you, though they tend to turn your hands black.
The American Beech is another "aggressive" forest tree; they grow straight up very fast & then spread out, blocking sunlight to lower, slower-growing plants, and develop a root-ball that includes a thick mat near the ground's surface, choking out competitive growth (or so I understand); they also are early to put out leaves and early to lose them, denying underlying herbiage as much spring, summer & fall sunlight as possible.
There is a good chance that by crossing American and Asian chestnut strains the size characteristics of the American and the pest resistance of the Asian can be mixed. Chestnut also is an interesting structural wood. Unlike beech, it grows straight, not helically. It also is a natural "pressure-treated" wood. That is one reason why it grew so big: its core didn't rot. But it also comprised most of the structural timbers in almost all barns built before 1930, as it didn't rot. Its loss as a forest tree was a big blow to the lumber industry.
Posted by: Tom Roberts at November 4, 2002 7:15 AMand to rambunctious kids everywhere...
Posted by: oj at November 4, 2002 7:30 AM