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Post by Edwin Turnage.

Identification of our Chestnut Trees: I am calling them hybrids for now.

Here are pictures of our Chestnut tree elements.  The leaf looks like a combination of the American and Chinese variety.

Our Tree leaf is to the right

From left to right: American, Chinese, our chestnut tree burr

From left to right: American, Chinese, our variety.

Based upon review of these images and our tree, it looks like we have a hybrid chestnut tree. The leaf in the top picture resembles both varieties. The lentles in the second picture look like American Chestnut lentles. The burrs resemble the Chinese chestnut variety. The nuts are big like Chinese chestnuts, but they are hairy like the American variety.

I am calling our trees hybrid chestnuts until I can get the definitive word from the American Chestnut foundation.  

The leaves of my chestnut tree will be submitted for analysis via the instructions in this link.

The Useful and Pretty Rose of Sharon Bush

On our homestead, we are well pleased with the summer flowering plant species, Hibiscus Syriacus. The plant is from the Malvaceae family of course from the Plantae kingdom. The plant is species native to Syria, as is indicated by its name. Below are pictures of our plant taken in September 2014.

Our hibiscus syriacus is identified from the cultivar as, "Notwoodone" or "LAVENDER CHIFFON® - Rose of Sharon." This post is written to delve into the meat of this useful and pretty plant.

The flowers of hibiscus warn of the waning summer. Here in North Carolina, we sometimes view this with relief! It is also a reminder that we need to prepare ourselves for approaching wintertime.

Interestingly, the plant will grow beneath the allopathic Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) which inhibits growth of many plants.

Hibiscus Syriacus is favored by professional landscapers as a hedge plant.  It is a low maintenance plant with pleasing flowers.

Uses:

The young leaves and flowers of Hibiscus Syriacus  are edible in salads. The leaves are less palatable than the flowers, which have a mild flavor. They also can be made into a tea.

Hibiscus Syriacus is a medicinal herb. 

A decoction of the flowers is diuretic, ophthalmic and stomachic. It is also used in the treatment of itch and other skin diseases, dizziness and bloody stools accompanied by much gas. A decoction of the root bark is antiphlogistic, demulcent, emollient, febrifuge, haemostatic and vermifuge. It is used in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, dysmenorrhoea and dermaphytosis.

Medicinal Herbs

Propagation:

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, Hibiscus Syriacus is, "[e]asily propagated by stem cuttings." Stem cuttings with produce a clone of the mother plant. The plant also will grow from her seeds, but she may not be true to type in terms of flower color.

Chestnut Tree identification

That is highly unlikely. But if we do, our trees could be the champions if they can pass along the resistant genetics. (Something other would-be champions have not been able to do at this stage.)

First we found an excellent Internet chestnut tree identification resource: The American Chestnut Foundation. Using the site, we compiled the following data to undertake this project.

Why I Need to Know if My Trees Are Champion American Chestnuts

We have two large, fruitful chestnut trees on our homestead. 

In the early 20th century a lethal Asian fungus infestation (known as the chestnut blight) swept across native habitat of the American chestnut tree and wiped out about 4 billion American chestnuts.  In circa 1925, the fungus reached our ecosystem in western North Carolina killing the American chestnuts here.

Most chestnuts growing now are Chinese chestnuts or hybrids. The Chinese chestnut species has an immunity to the blight. However, the American Chestnut Foundation is using science to seek out and restore blight-resistant American chestnut trees to our biome.

The first option for the American Chestnut restoration project is to locate naturally-resistant all American (not hybrid) trees. Champion trees could save the species. A champion would have a natural immunity to the blight, and would be capable of passing that immunity down to her children through her seeds. Here is an article about the ACF restoration project: Restoring the American Chestnut Tree. Another good piece is Chestnut Champions by Meghan Jordan, TACF, Page 12. 

There is only a very slight possibility we have American chestnuts on our homestead. There is an even smaller probability still that our chestnuts are champions. But even the faintest possibility of a champion chestnut tree on our homestead creates a duty to check. That is why we must identify our chestnut trees. We owe it to our ancestry and progeny. Stay tuned.

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