Are American Chestnut Hardwood

Chestnut wood doesn t refer to wood from a single tree but rather from a family of trees.

Are american chestnut hardwood.

Nearly 4 billion american chestnut trees were nearly wiped out between 1900 and 1940. Hardwood comes from trees with wide leaves while softwood comes from conifers like cypress and pines. Once an important hardwood timber tree comma. Dentata and some others long before european immigrants introduced their stock to america and before the arrival of chestnut blight.

In some places such as the appalachian mountains one quarter of hardwoods were chestnuts. This was due to what is known as the chestnut blight. Once an important hardwood timber tree the american chestnut suffered a catastrophic population collapse due to the chestnut blight a disease caused by an asian bark fungus cryphonectria parasitica formerly endothia parasitica this disease was accidentally introduced into north america on imported asiatic chestnut trees. Because of the blight wiping out nearly all mature american chestnut trees its lumber is both rare and relatively valuable.

But also a tree that is virtually indistinguishable in form growth rate and wood quality from a pure american chestnut. According to a historical publication many of the dry ridge tops of the central appalachians were so thoroughly crowded with chestnut that in early summer when their canopies were filled with creamy white flowers the mountains. American chestnut was a keystone species in the eastern hardwood forests and its demise has altered forest ecosystems by reducing species diversity reducing availability of hard mast and changed soil and litter dynamics. The chestnut tree is a hardwood tree.

American chestnut was once the most important tree of the eastern north american hardwood forest. At the turn of the 20th century american chestnut. Wormy chestnut in particular is usually salvaged from old barns and other structures and reprocessed and sold as reclaimed lumber. With this latest hybrid unofficially dubbed the restoration chestnut breeders feel they have a tree with enough of the chinese chestnut s natural blight resistance to have a shot at surviving.

Due to its wonderful stable disposition chestnut was used for every utility purpose by the colonials. The most well known is the american chestnut which can appear in various shades from a pale white through medium brown which develops a reddish hue with age. Prices are likely to be high for a domestic hardwood. American chestnut wood american chestnut comprised over 60 of the eastern hardwood forests when the first settlers arrived in north america.