Monday, May 14, 2012

Castanea henryi




What! another species named for Augustine Henry. China Valley is full of them. I could stand touching this chestnut and hit 5 other species with a rock. If I was accurate enough; I know I've got the range.

There are 3 species of chesnut native to China and at least two of them smell horrible when they flower. This is a young small tree, but I picked up the distinctive odor of fermenting underwear as soon as I rounded the corner 100+ feet from it. The flowers are nice though and it is being tried in crosses with our native chestnut in an attempt to slip genetic resistance to chestnut blight into C. dentata as gently as possible.

1 comment:

Katsura said...

Hey, do you know a source for this tree? Thanks.