Castanea dentata (Marshall)Borkh.

AMERICAN CHESTNUT

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In Florida it was known from only one putative native population, collected by Harbison in 1917 from Crestview, Okaloosa Co. (GH). It was reported for Escambia Co. by Little, Jr. (1978), but no specimens are known. After detection of the Asian ascomycete Cryphonectria parasitica (chestnut blight) in the Bronx Zoo in 1904, in the following decades C. dentata was virtually lost from forests of eastern USA. Attempts to confer resistance to the fungus have utilized hybrids with C. mollisima backcrossed to C. dentata or inserting genes directly into C. dentata (esp. oxalate oxidase). Another pathogen, the oomycete Phytopthora cinnamomi, is also problematic for C. dentata (Steiner et al. 2016).

Native

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