Phase III: Biology of the American chestnut
With this session, we’ll spend about half the day indoors and half outside. Hopefully the weather will cooperate! I believe this session will be one of our most interesting. We’ll cover the basics of genetics, chestnut morphology, wood identification, and chestnut pollination techniques. For the latter, we will cover the basics indoors and then head outdoors to look at some flowering trees and apply the techniques in the field.
It should be another fun day – just hope for beautiful weather!
Presentations
This presentation covers the basics of leaf identification, use of a key to identify tree species, and the specifics of ID for almost all Castanea species.
This presentation was put together by Lee Stover, retired faculty of wood products at Penn State. The material here covers the basics necessary to begin identifying wood samples, especially toward the end of identifying chestnut and those most often mistaken for chestnut.
This presentation covers the basics of quantitative and molecular genetics, particularly as they apply to the backcross breeding and genetic transformation of a blight-resistant American chestnut.
An update on flower development and controlled pollination techniques for chestnuts.