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| Our tree of the week is an American-Chinese hybrid chestnut tree, Dunstan. You can read the history this individual on a previous blog post, here, and you can learn about the company responsible for the development of Dunstan here. Today, we have a particular complaint to lodge against this specimen that the pubic may find of interest. Our chestnut tree is a litterbug. |
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| The tree of interest is pictured center. It grows at the bottom of a slope between a sidewalk and a drainage channel. |
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| In this last week of May, our chestnut tree freely (and no doubt absent-mindedly) drops its refuse, littering one of our main thoroughfares in the arboretum. |
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| The discarded plant material is a little disturbing, resembling little, fuzzy, tan-colored snakes or large worms. Very strange.... |
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| These are the male flower clusters of the chestnut tree. |
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| Chestnut catkin, 8 inches in length |
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| Chestnut catkin, 7 inches in length |
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| Chestnut catkin, 6½ inches in length |
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| Zooming in, we can see the fuzziness. |
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| We would like to say that our chestnut tree has an otherwise clean record, but, unfortunately this is not the case. Nor is it the most egregious of its missteps. As the year winds down the chestnut tree drops large, spiky orbs. During the past two years, the litter problem has been significant. |
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| These spikes are not "all bark and no bite." They are as painful as they look. You might object and think 'but wait! this ball of spines is actually a capsule for tasty snacks.' Let's see about that. |
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| After incurring the inevitable painful stabs, we discover that the hoped for tasty chestnuts are shriveled, small, and inedible! The disappointment is poignant. |
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| Why are the chestnuts wizened? Is there a water, fertilization or pollination problem? |
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| The arboretum's irrigation system keeps Dunstan hydrated during the hot months of summer, so we can cross water-shortage off the list of possible explanations. Inadequate fertilization and pollination are both reasonable explanations for the small fruits. The company responsible for Dunstan, Chestnut Hill Nursery and Orchards, recommends planting at least two Dunstans for proper pollination. We only have one. Also, other than applying mulch around young trees, we tend not to introduce any fertilizers into the arboretum landscape, so Dunstan has not received the recommended fertilizer treatments. If we want our Dunstan to produce delicious chestnuts, we ought to do something different. However, a healthier, more successful tree means even more litter! |
