On 12/31/2018 6:18 PM, Sonny wrote:
....
These trees don't seem to be typical tall trees, with branches starting high up. There's no confirming they aren't hybrid. Supposedly, west of the Rockies old trees are blight and hybrid free.
....
That's cuz they've been terribly cropped and no telling what else...I
sent Cindy's first picture to your email addy that shows them very clearly.
Since the park is part of a cemetery/funeral home now and there was a
service scheduled not long after she was there, she didn't try to learn
anything more on this trip about just how old they really might be or
their provenance regarding how they came to be. I'd guess they are
"real", not hybrids however.
I hadn't read the Discover article reference until just now; it starts
out with the fella' from VPI I knew and mentions the others that were
living on down in the article a ways. As of '04, it appears he may have
still been active; of course, that's another 15 years since, now,
almost; I'd guess he would be near 80 now, if not over...
https://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/pubs/jrnl/1978/ne_1978_macdonald_chestnutproc.pdf
Proceedings from a conference in which he presented some of his
research; much early work and all you'd ever want to know of the
pathology...
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