What is the chestnut?

The chestnut is a disease that affects American chestnut trees. It took approximately 50 years since the disease was first observed at the beginning of the 20th century for a large part of the American chestnut population. Although the diseases destroyed by American chestnuts, chestnuts from other areas of the world do not seem so vulnerable. Despite this, the chestnut is a very durable tree and shooting and the leaves often grow under the canker. They grow only a short time before they are also removed by a chestnut, in a cycle that continues until the tree dies.

It is assumed that the chestnut has entered the United States on Asian chestnuts introduced for decorative gardens. According to 1904, botanists noticed that it seemed that the trees of chestnuts in New York die of fungus and the fungus spread like a fire through the range of chestnuts. In one place, these iconic trees were found widely distributed in the Appalachian Mountains and were an important source of wood and forestry. In the 1950s it was becoming increasingly difficult to find.

In 1912, the law on plant quarantine was passed in an effort to stop the spread of chestnut mold. However, the fungus was very well introduced at this point. Today there are several trees in regions that have not affected mold, but the American chestnut is no longer a viable commercial type of trees. Botanists tried out species resistant to breeding, except for growing trees in areas without mold to eventually re -introduce an American chestnut. In addition, they experimented with hypovurulence, in which the fungus is manipulated to be less virulent, giving trees a chance to resist mold.

The spread of mushroom mold across the United States was unfortunate to the American chestnut and also served as a perennial illustration of the dangers of established organisms. US chestnuts have never been exposed before mushrooms and therefore had no resistance. Other fungal molds have gone through the populations of plants such as oaks and vines, causing similar damagethe plants that were not simply prepared. The destruction of the US chestnut population has also changed the American landscape and contributed to the development of phytopathology, a scientific discipline that focuses on the study of plant diseases, in America.