Friday, January 27, 2012
The three-decades-old initiative to restore American chestnut trees back into forests in the eastern United States has entered a new phase, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The primary focus of the project has transitioned from cross-breeding to testing and reintroduction into forests, noted Sara Fitzsimmons, northcentral region science coordinator for the American Chestnut Foundation and a research support technologist in Penn State's School of Forest Resources. It may take centuries until American chestnut again grows wild across its original range -- from Maine to Georgia and west to Indiana and Michigan, she said. Still, Fitzsimmons envisions a day when the huge trees again will dominate the forests of Pennsylvania and other states. (more)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Across the northeast, home gardeners expecting the usual bumper crop of tomatoes this season were dismayed to find their plants affected by late blight, the same fungus that caused Ireland's potato famine in the 19th century. According to Beth Gugino, assistant professor of plant pathology at Penn State, late blight is a fungus that primarily affects tomatoes, potatoes and certain solanaceous weeds such as bittersweet nightshade. (more)
