American Chestnut seed

There is a chestnut tree society that is distributing a resistant variety.

Yeah, it definitely had a huge impact on everything from the U.S. economy to the ecology of North American forests. I have a good-sized chestnut in the woods near my house that I'm hoping will flower and perhaps produce fruit in the next few years. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6644435

:( oh, that´s bad! thanks for the info though!

The chestnut blight, a fungal disease, was introduced into the U.S. in the early 1900's with imported chestnut trees. Our native chestnuts had no resistance to the disease, and by the late 40's pretty much all of the chestnuts east of the Mississippi had been killed down to their roots. The trees keep producing sprouts from their roots and the forests of New England are covered with these little trees that are already infected with the blight. A tiny fraction survive long enough to produce fruit, but it takes many years for a tree to mature. Entire books have been written about the blight and its impact in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight

Scott, why do they have problems with surviving? Illnesses?

Very nice. Not too many American Chestnuts live long enough to produce fruit. Were there still seeds inside the burs?

Nice.