Back From the Brink

About three years ago I wrote a post about the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) and its near extinction in the early 20th century due to the chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica, then called the Asian bark fungus).  I explained how The American Chestnut Foundation had crossed some of the last survivors of the American chestnut with other, related but more blight resilient, species in an attempt to save the tree from total extinction.  I also told how Annie and I had planted some of the hybrid chestnut trees (15/16 American chestnut and 1/16 blight-resistant Chinese chestnut), on the old home farm where we lived at the time but, when we were forced to sell the place we, of course, left those trees behind.

Now, though, I think I’ve found something better.

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I’m talking about the Ozark chinquapin (Castanea ozarkensis).  The tree has lived happily in the forest across the southern United States from time immemorial, at least up until the last half of the twentieth century.  Due to its many impressive traits those who lived with the Ozark chinquapin loved it.

When Europeans immigrated to North America the settlers found the bark of the Ozark chinquapin could be used to produce a purple dye.  It was also a plentiful source of tannic acid, which was used in tanning skins and producing leather.

The wood itself was impressively rot-resistant, making it quite durable when built into barns and furniture.  It also made rugged railroad ties and long-lasting fence posts.

Many of the uses of the Ozark chinquapin were, of course, well known to the Native Americans who shared their knowledge with white settlers.  Besides the previous facts they taught the immigrants some of the many medicinal uses for the trees’ parts, such as easing headaches, treating stomach issues, quelling diarrhea, even curing the then usually fatal whooping cough.

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Perhaps the best known and most commonly used parts of the Ozark chinquapin were the delicious nuts.  Unlike some nut-producing species, the Ozark chinquapin produced a bountiful crop of sweet nuts each and every year.  It has been said that the trees would produce their fruit so prolifically that they could be scooped-shoveled up to fill trucks and wagons, then taken home to feed livestock as well as family.  In those hard times they were a big help in surviving the winter. 

The Cherokee Indians dried and ground the nuts into flour.  What we now call the Ozark chinquapin, they then called the bread tree.

Those same nuts were a favorite snack for many, especially the kids and could be roasted just like its better known relative, the American chestnut.

Residents of the area native to the tree knew they had a treasure.  Some, who were children in the days when the Ozark chinquapin was common, remember them fondly.  In an interview, one of them said, “I remember coming home on a school bus and there was some big ole chinquapins alongside of the road.  The ground would turn black from the chinquapins.  The bus driver would stop and let us get out and gather chinquapins.  Boys would put them in their pockets while girls would pull up their dresses to make a bit of a pouch to hold theirs.  Squirrels went wild over ’em, but there was always enough chinquapins for everything- people and animals alike.”

Harold, a longtime resident of Missouri, remembered the Ozark chinquapin lovingly, “The Ozark Chinquapin nuts were delicious and we waited for them to fall like you would wait on a crop of corn to ripen…they were that important.  Up on the hilltop the nuts were so plentiful that we scooped them up with flat blade shovels and loaded them into the wagons to be used as livestock feed, to eat for ourselves, and to sell. Deer, bears, turkeys, squirrels, and a variety of other wildlife fattened up on the sweet crop of nuts that fell every year.  But, starting in the 1950s and 60s all of the trees started dying off.  Now they are all gone and no one has heard of them.”

All gone?  Dang!

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Chinquapin is the Americanized version of an Algonquin Indian word for the tree.  Another close American relative of the chinquapin received its name from its resemblance to a nut tree familiar to some of the immigrants.  They called that tree the chestnut. 

Yep.  Some scientists even suspect that the Ozark chinquapin is a direct ancestor of the chestnut.  The chinquapin and the chestnut are members of the same genus, and are similar enough that most non-scientists would have difficulty telling them apart. 

As my readers know, the chestnut blight was first recognized in the United States in New York in 1904 and began its rapid assault on our forests, decimating every American species of chestnut and chinquapin so rapidly that, by the end of that century fewer and fewer residents could even remember ever seeing one of these once majestic trees, which had made up as many as one-in-four trees in the American forest.

That’s the bad news; now for the good…and a couple heroes.

Yay!

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Steve Bost was a Missouri State Parks naturalist when he first heard about the Ozark chinquapin back in the 1990s.  He quickly became fascinated and horrified by the fact that the once so numerous Ozark chinquapin had been virtually wiped out.  Yes, although so many considered the species gone it wasn’t totally extinct…quite…yet.

Steve may not have had a superhero costume, but he had a strong theory, an idea, and a powerful work ethic, so he flew to the aid of the dying species.  With his knowledge and training and a determination that many can only aspire to, Mr. Bost started searching.  He followed rumors and contacted residents of Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas who claimed to have seen surviving chinquapins.

You see, Steve’s theory was that there had to be trees here and there that possessed some degree of resistance to the blight.  If he could just find those resistant trees he could use them to breed resistance into some of the many trees that had been affected by the blight but which were hanging on, producing suckers every year from their stumps and roots but slowly dying.

Bost traipsed up and down steep Ozark mountainsides braving ticks and mosquitoes and  working through oppressively hot summers and cold Ozark autumns.  He saw lots and lots of dead and dying Ozark chinquapins.  Gradually, here and there, he found a few healthy survivors.  Some were healthy because they had grown in spots that the blight hadn’t been able to reach yet, like the former Arkansas state champion of the species.  It was discovered on Mount Magazine State Park in 2019.  The park staff keeps the location of the huge old tree secret to protect it from exposure, and possible loss, to the blight.

Bost was eventually able to find 45 healthy wild chinquapin trees, some of which exhibited some degree of resistance to the dreaded blight. 

Yeah, only 45 healthy trees in four states…total.

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Careful to keep from spreading the disease he was trying to defeat, Steve Bost was slowly able to produce young chinquapins and spread the resistant genes he had found.  The resistant trees he is producing are pure, un-hybridized Ozark chinquapins.  While the efforts of the American Chestnut Foundation to save their chosen species by hybridizing are laudable, Bost thought he could save the Ozark chinquapin while avoiding introducing genes from other species that could bring undesirable traits with them, which could then bring unintended, negative consequences of their own.

As part of his ongoing efforts to save the species, Bost founded the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation (OCF) in 2007.  In the sixteen years since its founding, Bost’s organization has made great strides in its efforts and has dramatically increased the chances that this once great tree may one day regain its spot as one of the cornerstone species in southern forests.

I’m pretty sure that kids will love having the tasty nut back and I’ll bet parents everywhere will love having another healthy snack option for their children…and for themselves too.

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I first read about the OCF three years ago and was quick to search out their website (https://ozarkchinquapinmembership.org/).  For a minimum donation of $30 I joined and was promised three-to-five of the precious, possibly blight-resistant Ozark chinquapin seeds…at least as long as the year’s crop lasted and after enough were set aside to continue their efforts.

The first year was the year Annie and I made our move to Piggott and, in the confusion, my baggie of seeds got mixed up in the mail and spent way too much time in a postal storage area with hungry mice.  Still, when the seeds reached me I carefully followed the organization’s directions and was able to save one, little seedling. 

I contacted the foundation about the problem and Mr. Bost personally responded, promising to put his efforts into making the next year’s packet more successful.  As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Steve did, indeed follow through on his promise and my seeds arrived in a timely manner this year and, when I opened them at planting time, I had six, healthy, sprouted nuts.

As of now, the one healthy sapling from last year has been joined by the six from this year.  I am tenderly coddling the little potential-trees and hope, in three to five years, to start reaping little crops of my own tasty, healthy Ozark chinquapin nuts.  Yes, I intend to continue doing my part to help Mr. Bost (who has been joined in the organization by his daughter, OCF researcher Leslie Bost Carter, and numerous other volunteers) to help this delightful species rejoin our forests.

Yes, I’m looking forward to eating a few of the tasty nuts too.  I may even roast a few by an open fire for Christmas…if they last that long.  I may eat them all first.  I’ve tasted them and they are delicious!

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