Day 1346
Chestnut tree
September 6th, 2015
I'm walking every street in New York City.
This is the counterpoint to my walk across the US. Instead of seeing a million places for just a minute each, I'm going to spend a million minutes exploring just one place. By the time I finish walking every block of every street in all five boroughs, I'll have traveled more than 8,000 miles on foot — all within a single city. Details!
Email me at matt@imjustwalkin.com
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Maps: Progress | Photos
9,208 miles walked
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I love Chestnut trees! It would be fun to know whether this is an American or a Chinese Chestnut tree. American Chestnuts were mostly wiped out many years ago by a blight that kills the top of the tree. The roots are very hardy and will continue to sprout new limbs that can flower and produce nuts until it gets to a certain height, and then it, too, will get attacked by the blight and die off. Based on the health and density of the foliage of the tree in your photo, it is probably a Chinese Chestnut. Where is it?
Ooops, now I see all your posts are “mapped”, of course!
I agree that this is probably a Chinese chestnut.
Based on this reference, the leaves appear to be of the Chinese variety.
https://www.acf.org/resources/identification/chinese-american-chestnuts/
The nuts are still delicious however, providing they don’t get infested with worms.
I had 2 such trees on my property & I happily removed them a few years ago, due to the high maintenance of them.
As a tree lover, it broke my heart to do so.
But no more mess in the form of smelly seed strands or painful burs on the ground every year.
And the nuts were more of a burden than a pleasure, since chestnuts are very low in fat & must be harvested & refrigerated almost immediately upon ripening.
A beautiful description of chestnut trees opens The Overstory by Richard Powers. It speaks of endless chestnut trees in NY and all over the east coast and across the United States. And the free bounty they offered with their amazing fruit. All later wiped out by a blight. You may enjoy reading it. Thanks for the lovely journey you’re sharing…mb from Indiana
Thanks for this beautiful ride Matt, and also MB, I WILL read Powers book!