Blight-resistant American chestnut trees nearing reality
The demise of the American chestnut is one of the great ecological disasters of our time, according to a chestnut expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, who envisions a day in the not-so-distant future when the huge trees will again be growing in American forests. A decades-long process of introducing blight resistance by cross-breeding Chinese chestnut trees with American chestnuts, and then back-crossing the hybrids with American chestnuts to select for desirable American chestnut form and traits, seems to be close to bearing fruit. (more)