What is it Wednesday: January 30 2019

Can you identify what's in this photo?

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

the day after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on January 30, 2019. 

And the answer is....

The gnarled appearance of this American chestnut tree is a result of the chestnut blight, a fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica. Lutherlyn has 21 American chestnut trees, bred by the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation from “survivor trees” in hopes that they would be resistant to the chestnut blight. 

After the blight was introduced accidentally into the United States in the early 1900’s, almost all American chestnut trees died. American chestnut trees had no resistance to the fungus, unlike its Asian and European cousins. But a few individuals survived, and a handful of organizations are working to breed a blight-resistant American chestnut and revitalize this once-great tree.

Eleven of Lutherlyn’s American chestnuts were planted about 18 years ago, and another ten seedlings were planted in the last few years from nuts produced here by those original eleven trees. The hope is not that the trees will avoid getting the blight, but that when they do get it they will be able to fight it off.

Unfortunately, the tree in this picture is very damaged by the blight. It will probably not survive much longer, since the blight has completely surrounded the trunk. But this tree was one of the smaller ones, overgrown and shaded out by the others – maybe the larger heartier trees around it (which are also starting to show signs of the blight) will resist the blight and survive.

Lutherlyn also has several Chinese chestnut trees. They are naturally resistant to the blight, and do produce nuts every year, but are very different trees. Chinese chestnuts are relatively short, small, and spreading, like a dogwood tree, while mature American chestnut trees are more like oak trees, growing up to 100 feet tall! It would be great to see these majestic trees survive the blight and take their place in American forests once again.

See our December 2012 post 100% American Chestnuts for more about how these trees once dominated the eastern forests, their destruction by the chestnut blight, and attempts to bring them back.

At Lutherlyn, we love to take part in restoring and caring for the land around us, and teaching others to do the same. To learn with LEEP about how you can help be a part of caring for and restoring nature, check out ww.Lutherlyn.com/ee. 

Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!