Vicki's Chestnut Tree

The 946 Madison Avenue chestnut tree belonging to our member, Vicki Blasucci, has become a star.  Someone posted forty photographs of the tree on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/njheart2heart/sets/72157609014062777/  after Plainfields' Shade Tree Commissioner, Greg Palermo first wrote about it on his blog Plainfield Trees.  Members of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation are interested in the tree because it has reached a considerable size(1) in good health and with a graceful shape. Past president of the chapter Bob Summersgill recently visited the Madison Avenue chestnut. He concluded from a quick inspection that there were no other chestnuts in the vicinity. How did he know that? He had two important clues. First, the tree had no injury from chestnut blight, which it almost surely would have had if there had been a nearby chestnut to transmit the infection. Second, the tree was producing only sterile burs, lacking a nearby chestnut to serve as a pollinator.