85 foot chestnut tree found in Alabama

I thought this was interesting.

http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1150795196293730.xml?birminghamnews?nstate&coll=2

It's not interesting; it's wonderful. Around here in the mountains of NC, farmers regularly set their pigs free in the fall to fatten on the chestnuts that had fallen to the ground. They notched their ears to identify whose pig was whose, much like branding.
When you read the poem, "The Village Smithy," who is standing under a spreading chestnut tree, you realize what a great shade tree it was. It's also the chestnut referred to in the Christmas song (the name eludes me)......."chestnuts roasting on an open fire".......

No one knows for sure, since we can't ask Longfellow, but most are in agreement that the tree in the Village Smithy poem was actually a horsechestnut(A.hippocastanum) tree.

I'm a chestnut affectionado, but I wouldn't want one in my yard - they stink when in bloom, and the spiny burs would be a major hazard to one going barefoot. While the Asian chestnut species tend to be lower-growing, spreading, orchard-ype trees, and might make a reasonable 'shade tree'(if not for the stench and the burs), the American species was a taller-growing, upright timber-type tree, not necessarily the quintessential spreading 'shade tree'.

You got the name; it didn't elude you - it's 'The Christmas Song'.

Do the horsechestnuts have the same spiny burs, Lucky_P?

No. Or, at least, not as spiny - some of the Aesculus species have a few short spines on the leathery capsule surrounding the 'buckeyes', but they're nothing like the spiny pincusion/hedgehog/porcupine like burs surrounding chestnuts. You do NOT want to tread, barefoot, on a chestnut bur!

There's an article on 'Restoring the American Chestnut Tree to Alabama', in the June 2006 issue of Alabama's Treasured Forests, the official publicaiton of the AL Forestry Commission.
http://www.forestry.state.al.us/publication/TF_publications/tfspring06/Restoring_the_American_Chestnut_Tree_to_Alabama.pdf

Not sure why anyone would want to go barefoot outdoors anyway, what with (depending on where you are) doggy calling cards, broken bottles, druggies' syringes, wasps, hawthorn and barberry thorns, fire ants, assorted snakes, etc, etc, etc, - seems to me, chestnut burrs are the least of your worries

Resin

LOL, Resin. A lot of people in the south still go barefoot, but mostly just around neighborhood yards. EVERYONE did at one time, with more concern around the coast about sand spurs, a small for very sharp prickly seed pod.
Snakes and bees are usually a rare concern, but I don't know anyone in the south that did not eventually step on a yellow jacket.
I'm a little too far north for fire ants, but you have to avoid them even with shoes because they will swarm right up your leg.

Nothing like the feel of warm grass underfoot. I remember those days as a child. Yes, it's how I got my first bee sting while running thru a field of clover. I am a lot more tenderfooted these days.

Sweetgum fruits are enough trouble for me now; also for my horse who regularly requires that I pick those darn things out of her hooves. I certainly don't want any chestnut burs. I hope the trees make a comeback but I will leave them in the woods.

To this day, occaisionally someone finds a downed tree and can still cut it. It's wormy but mostly solid and is still prized for building small items like picture frames. Lucky_P, my husband has also been very interested in these trees since he did a report on them in grammar school, many years ago.
He is so thankful for the American Chestnut Foundation.

I linked it in a previous chestnut discussion somewhere on these forums, but will do it again now.
There is a second group that is working toward the reintroduction of the American chestnut, but they are using ONLY blight-resistant American chestnuts in their breeding program, instead of infusing Asian chestnut germplasm into the mix. They don't get as much press as the ACF - guess they don't have any $$ budgeted for advertising, etc.
I'm an ACCF cooperator, and have a few ACCF seedlings planted out here on the farm.
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/griffin/accf.html

Resin,
Yes, I'm(originally) from Alabama, and, no, these shoes don't hurt my feet.

I still like to go barefoot, but, at least in my yard, I don't have to worry about any of the litany of things you listed, other than doggie calling cards - or, occasionally a fresh cowpie, if the cows have been out(or if it's really droughty, and I've temporarily fenced and grazed the lawn area!).
No broken bottles or druggie's needles, no barberries, the hawthorns are all planted well away from the lawn, and after a full childhood of stepping, barefoot, on sweetgum balls, there's no way in hell I'd ever purposely plant one of those things - actually, I've sworn myself to eliminate every one I find growing on the farm here - and our friends VV & Guy love to tease me about my Liquidambar breeding program.

Love to feel the grass underfoot - and, actually, a fresh, warm cowpie doesn't feel all that bad, either! LOL!

Lucky, I'm working with a propagator now to start some gums from one that is so loaded with gumballs every year that it has developed weeping form from the weight. I'll try to sneak down there and plant a few on your farm!
Guy S.

Consarn you, Q-tip! Keep those infernal volatile hydrocarbon-spewing factories away from heah! What is it that they put out - isoprene?

I'm training the ol' hound-dog(Boz the Destroyer) to sniff out those gum trees here that are suffering from a Tordon deficiency.

Hey, send ol' Boz up here to sniff out some honeysuckle and MF rose and autumn olive for me and I might give you a reprieve on the gums! By the way, I am not Q-Tip, I'm Mr. Wunnerful -- you must have me confused with someone who is old and gray instead of merely sun-blonde.

Your xanthocarpic spicebush are coming up yellow-green, but look healthy. I wonder if the fruit color has anything to do with that?

Guy S.

I looked at pictures of the American Chestnut on Google. It seems they may be a bit upright in the forests but if given sun and space, they do spread nicely.

LOL.
I don't know - I've got a pot full of those seedlings, and since I've never purposely grown them before, I don't know if they're normal or not. Maybe I ought to look more closely - if there's a significant difference in color, perhaps one could pick out the xanthocarpic seedlings at an early age.