Long Island Botanical Society newsletter

12 Pages·2003·3 MB·English

by  Long Island Botanical Society

XL
o5%
t/‘/3
LONG ISLAND
BOTANICAL SOCIETY
Vol. 13 No.l The Quarterly Newsletter Jan. - Mar. 2003
,
Retrieving the Rooseveltarchedhisbackandwiththe strength
American Chestnut of all his muscle and all his will he drove the
swinging ax into the dead chestnut tree. Chards
John E. Potente tinged with orange splintered the air, raining on
theground. Large sheetsofbloatedbarkcollapsed
and bounced at his feet. The wounded wood
Theodore Roosevelt lookedup atthe American
chipped and spun in pieces as he swerved and
Chestnut tree on his estate at Sagamore Hill in
Oyster Bay Cove on Long Island. He held an ax steeredhis axuntil the toweringtree groanedand
crashed, shaking the ground on which he stood.
in his hand and an ache in his heart. Thick bark
In 1910, afterservingas one ofthemostpopular
wrapped around massive trunks that held up the
presidents and initiating the national park system
higharchingbranchesofferingsummershade. The
saving vast areas offorestland, he sat helpless as
American Chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) was
helookedupatthesickenedtreesonhishomeland.
one ofthe stanchions ofthe plant world in North
The chestnut blight had reached Long Island.
America. It was tall, strong, bountiful, majestic
and admired. Spreading at a rate of 20 to 50 miles a year, it
affectedeverysingleAmericanChestnuttreefrom
It grew along the length of Appalachian
mountains, down their slopes, into their foothills Manhattan to Montauk in a decade’s time. The
post-WisconsinianreignoftheAmericanChestnut
and out onto glacially-sculpted Long Island.
Thirsty for sunlight, it sent its trunk up over a tree on Long Islandwas over. (Cont. onpage 4)
hundred feet. Complimenting the west coast
redwoods,the eastcoastAmericanChestnuttrees
grew to six centuries old, attaining girths offive
to six feet across.
Its importancetowildlifewasparamount: while
oakprovided acorns as winter staple on alternate
yearsfordeer,turkey,grouse,andsmallmammals,
American Chestnut shed burs that burst open
bearing three nuts apiece covering the ground
everyyear. Itsimportancetotheforestwascentral:
fullyone-quarterofthe easterndeciduous canopy
was American Chestnut. Its importance to the
economy ofthe growingnationwas far-reaching.
American chestnuts comprised much of the
livelihood of those along the Appalachians:
chestnut timber was desired for lumber,
construction, and even fine woodworking. Rich
in tannin, its wood lasted longer than most other
onceharvested. Itwastrulyanall-Americantree. American Chestnut (Castanea dentata)
Page
1
Long Island Botanical Society
News
Society
Founded: 1986 Incorporated: 1989
Remembrances at the Joseph M. Beitel Memorial Service
The Long Island Botanical Society atTheodoreRooseveltCountyPark,Montauk,LongIsland,NY
is dedicated to the promotion of onSaturday,October5,2002. DedicationpresentedbyArtCooley
field botany and a greater under- I would have never seen Curly Grass Fern ifithadn’t been for Joe
standing of the plants that grow
Beitel. Nor would I have been aware offruiting Liverworts on the
wild on Long Island, New York. Little Peconic River, ifJoe Fladn’t pointed them out. Nor would I
know how to make commercial quantities oflemonade from Dwarf
Executive Board Sumac. Norwould I have known what a tepui is. But then most of
President us would not have seen a lot ofthings ifit hadn’t have been for Joe
EricLamont [phone] Beitel. But I’m ahead ofmy story.
Vice President
Joe Beitel walked into my sophomore biology class in 1967 two
SkipBlanchard [phone]
Treasurer weeks after school started. This section ofbiologyhadbeen created
Carol Johnston [phone] afterschoolbeganbecause allthe othersectionsweretoo large. Each
Recording Secretary teacher, therefore, was given the choice of picking three or four
BarbaraConolly [phone] studentsto sendtothis sectionofbiologythatIwouldteach. Clearly,
Corresponding Secretary
John Potente [phone] Ireceived students others didnotwant. Iwillbe eternallygratefulto
the teacher that sent Joe to that section.
Committee Chairpersons Life in that class was difficult for awhile, considering how I came
Local Flora by the students. Joe, for his part, was enthusiastic, he was eruptive,
Steven Clemants [phone] he was talkative, he was disruptive, but he bubbled with enthusiasm
FieldTrips and I likedthat, I likedthat a lot. Attimes, however, itwas not clear
JennyUlsheimer [phone] whetherhewas inmyclass orIwas inhis. Butthen, mostofus have
Programs
been in his class since we first came to know him.
RichKelly [phone]
Membership It was not long before he joined a weekend field trip group that
LoisLindberg [phone] DennisPuleston,the Shores, the Cooleys andotheradults conducted
Conservation eachweekendforhighschool students. Wewereprimarilyinterested
John Turner [phone] inbirds. Whenwe triedto getJoeto appreciate aMagnoliaWarbler,
KarenBlumer [phone] hewouldaskwhatfernwasthat. WhenwewatchedaSharp-shinned
Education
MaryLauraLamont [phone] Hawk swoop in and take a Snow Bunting, he wouldpick seedpods
Thomas Stock [phone] offEvening Primrose. When we looked up, he would look down.
Hospitality And what he sawbecame his life’s work.
Jane Blanchard [phone] In 1975, he organized a field trip of fellow students to Gilsum,
BettyLotowycz [phone] NewHampshirewherewehave acabin. Abookofherbariumsheets
Zu Proly [phone]
Editor ofall the Pteridophytes ofthe area around the cabin was his present
JohnPotente [phone] to us forthe use ofthe cabin. Each sheet is annotated, scientifically
accurate and ajoy to those who have used it ever since in studies of
Membership ferns and fernallies. On CinnamonFern, it says, “see the hairytufts
Annual Dues of$15 payableto: atthebase ofthe leaflets”; onLycopodium clavatum itsays, “seethe
Long IslandBotanical Society ,
long peduncle on the strobilus”. I can hear him admonishing me to
Mailto:
LoisLindberg, MembershipChairperson look more closely so that I would not miss the paraphyses or the
45 Sandy Hill Road indusium covering the sorus. How many of us have been so
OysterBay,New York 11771-3111 instructed?
Article & News Submissions To this day, his mother does not know about Dwarf Sumac
Long IslandBotanical Society lemonade. Joe and his fellow students were having an evening
RO. Box 5001 programatthehighschoolonenvironmentalproblems. Theydecided
Hauppauge,New York 11788
tohave some foodsmade fromwildmaterialstoattractmorevisitors.
[email protected]
JoechoseRhuscopallinum DwarfSumac;hewouldmake lemonade.
,
PrintedbyNativeAmerica But he had to get the acid offthe seeds in the fruiting head.
Page 2
The minibasket of his mother’s washing We love you, Joe, you have enriched our lives.
machine would do nicely. Put the seeds in the You have shown us curly grass fern, tepuis and
machine, set the cycle to rinse, then siphon out liverworts and you have shown us how to make
the liquid, add sugar and voila: lemonade. Joe lemonade. What more could anyone ask of a
would always think about a problem a little friend. We miss you greatly, Joe, but we will not
differently fromthe rest ofus. Itwas part ofwhy forgetyour lessons.
we loved him so much.
JoeworkedfortheEnvironmentalDefenseFund
mapping fresh water wetlands in the Southwest
SewerDistrict. He surveyedSuffolkCountyParks
for rare and endangered species. He helped
compile books about what life occurred in many
parts ofLong Island. One hadthe feeling that he
didn’t do it for the organizations, but because he
had to know what was there and he needed to
know how to identify every plant that there was.
Inlateryears,thisyearningtookhim, onbehalfof
the New York Botanical Gardens, to China,
Oaxaca, Venezuela, especially to Venezuela.
Joe introduced me to tepuis in his living room.
Many ofus were taught by Joe in his home. He
showed slide after slide. Were we only as strong
as Joe we wouldhave seenall ofthem. Butwhat
we saw excited us. Emma
In March, I flew over the tepuis of southern
Venezuela, the ones that give rise to Angel Falls Shirley
andcarambabiology. In Spanish, carambameans
“upon my word”, butto Joe itwas the essence of Dedication of the Joseph Beitel Memorial Plaque
Standingleftto right: JohnHeidecker,ArtCooley,
discovery andjoy andnopersonmore accurately
Joanne Tow, Karen Blumer, Skip Blanchard
reflectedthe enthusiasmandexcitementthatword Sitting left to right: Eric Lamont,
teaches than Joe. As I flew past those majestic Jane Blanchard, Betty Lotowycz, Carol Johnston
escarpmentsofancientrock,IcouldseeJoebeside
himselfwithjoy, reveling in the newness ofthis
unique habitat, one that he had the good fortune
to be studying. I couldhear shouts of“caramba”
echoing up toward the heavens. Joe was there
and I was being called to look at something
exciting that he had discovered.
William Morton Wheeler, a famous Harvard
entomologist, once noted that professional
biologists will be condemned to live in
laboratories sorting specimens and inhaling
formaldehyde whenthey pass on, while amateur
biologists will forever have the joy of scouring Conolly
the landscape lookingfornewspecimens. While
JoeBeitelwas aprofessional,weallknowthathe Barbara
is not in a laboratory, buthe is inthe fieldyelling
“Caramba”toanyonewhowilllisten. IfGodisn’t TheJoseph Beitel memorialplaque now in place
careful, he will soonbe a botanist. And he could on a stone near one of his favored spots
have no better teacher. at Theodore Roosevelt County Park.
Page 3
(Cont. from p.l) Roosevelt contacted William
A
Murrell. few years prior, in 1904, Murrell, a
mycologist, sampledbarkspecimensfromAmeri-
can Chestnut trees at the New York Zoological
Park (now the Bronx Zoo). The trees had devel-
opedswollenorange-huedcankers ontheirtrunks
and subsequently lost their ability to cope. These
trees along the avenues ofthe park quietly suffo-
cated and died. While Murrell could see that a
funguswas involvedinthis forebodingillness,he
couldnotmatch its morphology to knownNorth
Americanspecies. In 1908,Murrell observedthat
American Chinquapins (Castaneapumila) in the
NewYorkBotanicalGardenalsoworethetelltale
chancre coatings and were dying. The news he
relayedto Roosevelt was not good.
Curiously, Murrell observed that Japanese
Chestnuttrees{Castaneacrenata intheNewYork
)
Botanical Garden were also affected. In the late
1800’s, the fad for oriental nut trees had grown.
As early as 1876, S. Parsons, a nurseryman in
Flushing, importedchestnuttrees fromJapan and
bytheturn ofthe centurytheywerereadilyavail-
ableinmailordercatalogs. Collectors andbreed- Theodore Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill, LI. 1910
ers also added to America the Chinese Chestnut
trees {Castanea mollissima). David Fairchild of
the US Plant Introduction Division ofthe USDA
hired Frank Meyer to explore potential plant im-
portsand,by 1901 thedivision, itself,ambitiously
,
began bringing to our shores Chinese Chestnut
trees. American Chestnuttrees were greeted and
challengedby their long lost cousins.
Chestnut trunks throughout Brooklyn, Queens,
Nassau and Suffolkwere allbeing scarredby the
sinisterdarkorange cankers. Tiny dots oforange
sprinkled the bark’s skin while its underlying in-
tegument was indignantly undermined. By the
hundreds and then thousands, American Chest-
nuttrees onLongIslandlosttheirbark, cambium,
leaves and, ultimately, their lives.
The related Japanese and Chinese Chestnut
trees,althoughalsoaffected, faredbetter. In 1913,
Fairchild again asked Meyer to go to China; this
time to look for the disease. There, Meyer did,
indeed, discoverblightfungus on Chinese Chest-
nut. SamplesweresenthomeandtestedonAmeri-
can Chestnut. It killed the trees. In 1915, in Ja-
pan, too, he found it. The foreign and domestic
funguswas oneandthe same. Theblight,bythen, Thisblighted30’AmericanChestnut hasdiedsince
was araging American epidemic. this photo was taken in 1996. Miller Place, LI
Page 4
The lineage ofchestnut extendsbacksome forty
million years in North America. Pollen dating
fromforesthollowsedimentsinMassachusettsin-
dicate itwas inourareaofNewEnglandforsome
4,500years. Atthetime ofEuropeansettlementit
was estimatedto constitute some 25% ofthe Ap-
palachianforesthardwoods. Itwitnessedandsur-
viveddozens ofglaciations,recuperatedafterepi-
sodic droughts, fires, and insect infestations, and
replenished abandoned acreage after lumbering
andclearing. Butamicroscopic fungalsporemea-
suring a few microns across was now tormenting
this forest giant.
As you enter Sunken Meadow State Park in
Kings Park, on the north shore of Long Island,
youwillseealawnedareawithsomepicnictables
onthe righthand side. There are somevery large
old chestnut trees that are evenly spaced. These
treesareJapaneseChestnutandappeartobeabout
ahundredyears old. Verylikely,theywerepartof
early originalnursery stockthatcarriedtheblight
fromAsia. While the blight fungus probablyhad
begun sporulating here in America inthe tail end Streetor
of the 1800’s, it was not until 1904 that it was V.
observed on infected American Chestnut by S.
AmericanChestnutinPoplarCove,JoyceKilmner
HermanMerckelattheNewYorkZoologicalPark Memorial Forest, North Carolina, 1910.
in the Bronx and reported to Murrell.
The fungus feasted on the cambium ofAmeri-
can Chestnut in the NewYork metropolitan area
and spread north and south throughout the
chestnut’srange: by 1910, itwasontreesinsouth-
ernConnecticut;bytheearly 1920’s,southernNew
York was wiped out; in Pennsylvania, swaths a
mile wide were cut through forested areas to at-
tempt to stop its spread; by 1925, practically all
weredeadthroughWestVirginia;bythe30’sNorth
Carolina was hit; and by 1950, four billion trees
were dead on 200 million acres. In a short fifty
years,99.99%ofallAmericanChestnuttreeswere
essentially eliminated as a forest tree.
While current battles ofinvasive plant species
are focused onnoticeable herbaceous andwoody
plants such as Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris),
Phragmites (Phragmites australis) and Oriental
Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), here were Potente
invasive fungal spores whichwere invisible (and
E.
being obliviously inhaled by us) that went on to
John
executethesinglemostdevastatingimpactoneast-
Today’s American Chestnut appears in the forest
ern deciduous forest ecology since our own dis- as humiliated understory twigs of root stock.
covery ofthis continent. Vail Blydenburgh Preserve, Smithtown, LI. 1996
Page5
2
The chestnuttrees ofChinaandJapandateback
Cpahriennetse Apamreernitcan American longbeforetheirAmericancounterpartsandprob-
ably evolved concurrently with the blight. Al-
though often scarred by it, they survive. These
trees were not offorest character and instead re-
sembled cultivated orchard trees. Agricultural
practice inAsiamay have verywell contributed:
the nuts of the Chinese and Japanese Chestnut
treeswere larger, thetree formwasmoretailored
forharvesting, andtheyexhibitedbetter, although
varied, resistance to the blight fungus.
As the blight began decimating the chestnut
trees of America, breeders experimented with
hybrids crossedwithAsiatic trees thatmight sal-
backctIossF2 vage the American strain. Many ofthese trials
provedunsuccessfulandin 1960thegovernment-
genotypes sanctioned USDA program was abandoned.
•susceptible •moderately •resistant
RR.ifWVj* RR,,rR,,R(jVRj2 R.R.R^ RRiirRi.Vrj^ rRe.sRia.aRn/t r,R,r2r2 Experiencedwiththehybridizationofcom,bar-
rVijf\RR?*Rj Rir,Rjf} r,rtRjR2 R.r.R^j ley andwheat, abotanist, Charles Burnham, saw
r,r,r,rj Mr,ir,LI*Vi- R.r,Rjr?
thatearlierbreedingattemptstorescuetheAmeri-
Hybridization theory of the American Chestnut can Chestnut mistakenly relied simply on large
Foundation. Bybreedingfortheresistancefactor, numbers ofrandom crosses. Burnham devised a
R, while continuing to back-cross with American genetic schemewherebyrepeatedback-crossesto
Chestnut, the desirable traits ofour native tree is American Chestnutwoulddilutethe genes ofthe
saved and the nonnative traits are culled.
Chinese orJapanese Chestnut. Then, by deliber-
Notethattheabovediagramassumestherearetwo
ately infecting the resultant saplings, one could
genes for resistance, R1 and R2.
eliminate those that showedblight susceptibility.
Backcrossing initial hybrids with American
Chestnut three times would obtain a tree that is
15/16thsAmericanChestnut. Then,byintercross-
ingthose offspring, one couldproduce individual
trees inheritingthegenes forresistance fromboth
parents. “Weeding out” those that didnot exhibit
American morphological characteristics would
increasethepurityratio. Thisbecamethe premise
for the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF).
Thefoundationwas formedin 1983byBurnham
and others and began its breeding program. Re-
sistantChineseandJapanesetreeswerepollinated
withAmericanChestnut. The“Hammond”chest-
The “Hammond” chestnut tree posing with nuttree ofthe MuttontownPreserve became one
Muttontown Preserve director, Alan Lindberg. ofthe sourceswhenArthurGraves, curatorofthe
This tree, planted on Long Island before 1929, is Brooklyn Botanic Garden, collected its pollen.
probablyahybridofJapanese(Castaneacrenata) Repeatedcrossesoverthepast20yearshavebeen
and European (Castanea sativa) descent. Its encouraging. Thisautumn,withover 17,000trees
durability in the face ofthe blight made it one of
growing on a 60-acre orchard in Meadowview,
the earlybreedingchoicesforitsresistancefactor.
Many of the trees being grown and Virgina, a basket was filled with B3-F2 genera-
distributed throughout the east coast by the tion ofchestnuts. One more cycle ofintercross-
American Chestnut Foundation will have their ingremainsbefore theAmerican ChestnutFoun-
resistance genes descended from this tree. dation will have its resistant generation!
Page 6
Americawas notalone in its woes. In 1938, the
blightattackedthe European Chestnut (Castanea
sativa as a consequence of the introduction of
)
JapaneseChestnuttreesthere. Thetreesweredeci-
mated in Italy. France, too, was being affected.
However, in 1950, before Europe had lost all its
trees, someEuropeanChestnuttrees growingnear
Genoa were found to possess some cankers that
had stoppedprogressing.
The fungus, now identified as Chryphonectria
parasitica is an ascomycete: it reproduces sexu-
,
ally by scattering wind-borne ascospores . It also
reproduces asexuallybyproducing stickymasses
of conidia which can be tracked about by birds
and insects. The fungus on the “halted” cankers
in Genoa lacked the orange pigment and most of
theirpycnidia(asexualfruiting structures). These
cankers contained a weaker strain offungus that
was “hypovirulent”. Even more significant was
thatthistraitforhypovirulencewastransmissible!
Often, whenfungi ofthe same species approach
one another,theirthreadlikehyphaejoinandform
Potente
a bridge (anastomosis) and they exchange cyto-
E.
plasm. Electron microscopic investigations re-
John
vealed that the determining factor for
hypovirulencewasdsRNAbeingpassedfromone Bark of infected American Chestnut at Vail
fungi to another. The hypovirulent strains were Blydenburgh Preserve in Smithtown, LI. 1996
actually incapacitatingtheblight fungi. The fun- Disease is manifested by the cankered bark.
gus, itself, was being parasitized by a primitive This is caused by the spread of the fungal myce-
lium through the cambium. Tiny orange dots of
virus! Fortuitously, natural occurring
fungal fruiting bodies are seen above canchre.
hypovirulence led to the chestnut’s recovery in
Italy.
The hypovirulent fungiwerebroughttothe US
inexpectationofacure. Americantrees were in-
oculated and most of the cankers tested were
stopped. Butnotall. SandraAnagnostakis ofthe University
ConnecticutAgriculturalExperimentStationiden-
tifiedgenesthatcontrolcompatibilitybetweendif- Virginia
ferent strains of C. parasitica. The greater the
West
genetic variation, the less the chance of hyphal
anastomosis.
Concurrently, natural hypovirulent strains were MacDonald/
being discovered in the United States. However,
hopes forhypovirulencecausingthedemise ofUS William
blighthavebeencompromised. Itmaybebecause
the blight persisted so much longer in North Chryphonectria parasitica is an acsomycete.
It produces both asexual conidia (which
America before the hypovirulent forms arose (or
break off from a conidiophore and are
N
wereintroduced). The orthAmericanblightwas carried down the trunk by rain) and sexual
given a free reign to differentiate into 100 differ- ascospores (which are produced in
entvegetative strains, playing a game ofelusion. ascocarps and are carried in the wind).
Page 7
I firstbecame exposedtotheresearchonAmeri-
can Chestnut through Sandra Anagnostakis. She
briefed me on the biological control work being
donewithhypovirulenceinConnecticut. Shethen
referred me to the ACF and their work with hy-
bridization. IjoinedACFandin 1995volunteered
tobecome the director ofthe Long Island district
ofits New York Chapter (TACFNY)].
TACFNYwas sponsoringanintriguingthirdap-
SUNY
proachutilizinggenetic engineeringatthe
Syracuse School ofForestry and Environmental
A
Science. triad ofantifungal genes were being
Germinating Conidia ofChryphonectriaparasitica.
The spore, itself, is about a micron in length. investigatedthatwouldbe addedtothe 50,000 or
sogenes oftheAmericanChestnutgenome. They
wouldconferthe ability ofAmerican Chestnutto
produce, upon trauma, an antimicrobial peptide,
oxalateoxidase(adefenseenzymefoundinwheat)
andachitinasegene (enzymefoundinsoilfungi).
Although a promoter gene was being included
toactivatethe gene complexupontissue damage,
Iwas concernedaboutthemanifestations ofthese
genes. Whiletheirefficacywasprovingsuccessful
in the lab, what wouldbe the implications out in
the forest? Once triggered, the chitinase enzyme
would dissemble the chitin wall of the
Crypnonectriaparasiticafungus. However,there
Intercellularfungalintrusionofchestnutcambium.
The hyphae penetrate the bark and form wasnothingtostopitfromalsoaffectingthechitin
mycellium mats which constitute the canker. exoskeletons of insects that might be browsing
on the foliage. Should insects receive collateral
damage, what would be the impact of a
reintroducedtreethatonceconstitutedonequarter
ofthe forest biomass? And what would be the
effectofbirdlifethatdependedupontheseinsects?
In 1996, now on the board ofdirectors, I pre-
my
sented concernstothechapterandthe genetic
researchteamat Syracuse. Iproposedapromoter
gene that was more specific: one that would act
as a switch and restrict the action to the stem,
bark, or cambium where the blight problem oc-
curred. This would disarm the gene triad at the
leafand flower and seed level providing a mea-
sure ofsafety for forest foragers, including us.
my
Despite urgings, this extraprocedure would
entail extended research time, supplementary re-
searchpersonnelandadditionalbudgetallocations
that were not available. My frustrations were al-
layed when, in 1998, in large measure to through
the effortsofHerbDarling,presidentofTACFNY,
Lysis of C. parasitica hyphal tips by the New York legislature appropriated $150,000
protein extract from Chinese chestnut. ayear, for three years, to bolster the program.
Page 8
These funds were then used to expand the re-
searchteam. Andmostgratifying,tome, wasthe
inclusion ofa student who would undertake the
research ofapromotergene associatedwith stem
or wood-forming tissue. The following year, in
May of 1999, Nature published a study, done at
CornellUniversity, onthe ill-effects Bt-compol-
len had on Monarch butterflies. (Bt-com is ge-
neticallyengineeredwithatoxinderivedfromthe
bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to protect com
crops from moth caterpillars.) Chuck Maynard,
SUNY
director overseeing the Syracuse project, Syracuse
wroteme, “I suspectthatno singlepilotstudyhas
everunleashedsuchaninternationalfervor. Isure SUNY
amgladyoupersuadedusto lookforacambium-
specific promoter.” In the fall of2002, William Maynard/
Powell, co-directoroftheteam, informedmethat
the student, Bernadette Conners, received her Charles
Ph.D. asaresultofsuccessfullyidentifyingasuit-
Mass of somatic embryos tissue-cultured
ablechestnut cambiumpromotergene. Thispro-
from nuts of American Chestnut.
moter is now included in the “gene construct” as
aregulatory switch to restrict the antifungal bar-
rage to the bark cambium.
Currently, Maynard is developing the means to
get the modified genes into American Chestnut.
This canbe done either through embryonic cells
derivedfromchestnuts oratthe evenearlierstage
DNA
by getting the into chestnut pollen.
Chestnuts from all overNewYork State arebe-
m
ing sent to Syracuse. The tiny chestnut embryos Chestnutpollengrainb:eingheldinplacebymeans
areextractedfromthenutsandtissueculturedinto of vacuum holder while a micropipette pierces
thousands ofreplica embryos. Pollen is also be- the cell, injecting new genetic material.
ingcollected. Transformationintomodified-DNA
cells can then take place a number ofways. Re-
cruitingAgrobacterium tumefacienstakesadvan-
DNA
tage of a parasitic bacteria to deliver the
“Trojanhorse style”. Usinga“genegun”, isolated
DNA
material isprecipitated onto microparticles
ofgoldwhich are thenblasted into the cells. Mi-
croinjection utilizes tooling that actually pierces
thecellassuringthateachacquiresthenewgenes.
Transgenic (genetically transformed) plants
Syracuse
have been grown from tissue culture in the lab
andarebeingraisedinthelaboratorygreenhouse.
These plants are then tested by making small SUNY
bruises ontheirstemsandinjectingdrops ofblight
Maynard/
fungal solution. Resistance is observed with
canker formation and healing. While there are
still many tests to be done and questions to be Charles
answered, theprogressbeingmade is impressive. AmericanChestnutplantsgrownfromtissueculture.
Page 9
Upon volunteering as director ofthe Long Is-
land district, I filled aposition that had no prede-
cessor. To start, I had to inventory the remaining
American Chestnut trees that flowered. While
chestnuttrees are monoecious, male flowers can-
not fertilize female flowers of the same tree. I
neededtocross-pollinatebyhandthetreesIfound.
Thenuts ofLongIslandecotypewouldbeplanted
onLongIslandorsentontotheprograms fortheir
regional germplasm. In 1995, put an announce-
1
mentinthe Decemberissue ofLIBS. Soonthere-
after, calls trinkled in and I engaged my search.
Aside fromthemanyfalse leads ofHorse Chest-
nut (Aesculus hippocastanum) andhickory, I was
all too often informed oftrees that proved to be
Chinese orJapanese Chestnut. Evenmore disap-
pointingwerethosetreesthatwerehybrids ofChi-
nese, Japanese, European, and America.
The status ofAmerican Chestnut is truly a sad
one. When I didrarely come across one, I would
stand and stare up at this dying emperor: sturdy
furrowedbarkbracing a canopy oflong, graceful
leaves that were artfully scalloped and green like
emerald. And amongst its breathtaking beauty,
were the yellowed starving leaves of blighted
Since mature flowering American Chestnut trees
are now so widely scattered, one must deliver branches. I was witnessing, almost in disbelief,
the pollen to the pistil. Here, John Potente one ofthe great accomplishments ofthe natural
gets a lift to cross-pollinate a tree in world on the verge ofextinction. What was the
Caleb Smith State Park in Smithtown. 1998 right thing to do? Watch? Interact? Go home?
All too often, I have been dismayedbybiologi-
cal controls that have spun unexpectedly out of
control. Too many times have I seen insect or
mammalian or evenvegetativepredators brought
in to control a prior mistake; only to generate an
even larger unforeseen problem. Was hybridiza-
tion or hypovirulence or high-tech genetic engi-
neering immune to such casualty?
Ipluckedleavesas specimens andsouvenirs and
wentontolearnmore. Duringthelastsevenyears,
Anthers are brushed against the stigmas in cross- throughthehelpofalertnaturalists,I locatedmany
pollination. The female flower is then qickly areas withblighted sprouts andjust over a dozen
bagged to prevent pollen contimanation. large flowering trees, most on or near the Harbor
Hill Moraine. They were not big or old. And of
thosethatIdidfindandpollinate,manyhavesince
becomeblightedandareintheirdeaththroes. The
largeroots persist, fortheyarenotaffectedbythe
blight. However, the struggleto sproutis causing
attritionoftheirnutritionalreserve. Therearenow
Map of locations of mature American Chestnut less than a hundred mature trees producing nuts
on Long Island and Shelter Island. in all ofNew York State.
Page 10