The American Chestnut

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

All right, so my last post about global warming sounded a bit cranky. Well if the truth be told the whole discussion has me a bit irritated.

I like practical solutions to problems rather than knee jerk reactions. Here is a case in point.

There is a beautiful tree called the American Chestnut that is endangered and has been since the 1950’s.

This tree, once called “The Redwood of the East” produces an edible nut and was once the most common tree species in the Eastern United States.

Although Nova Scotia is out of its natural range we do have a handful of these magnificent trees.

Speculation is that when the United Empire Loyalists emigrated here after the American War of Independence they brought the seeds of the American Chestnut with them. You can see from the picture that these trees are big, capable of growing to well over one hundred feet tall with trunks ten feet around.

The lumber is light and strong with a lovely straight grain. It was used to make everything from shingles to furniture.

 Because of the amount of tannic acid in the wood it was especially useful for outdoor applications like making telephone poles.

 http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

We have all heard the song lyric, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” well these are the nuts they are talking about. The nuts fed not only people but woodland creatures such as bears, deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds and more counted on their bounty as well.

In the late 1800’s chestnut trees from Asia were imported into North America. I’m not sure why, probably for ornamental reasons. In 1904 a fungus was found to be killing American Chestnut trees in New York. By 1950, about three and a half billion American Chestnut trees were dead. That’s 90 per cent of the species –gone.

Late in the 1980’s a group called The American Chestnut Foundation began working on a way to bring these trees back. They cross bred seed from the survivors with fungus resistant seed from China and then bred the fungus resistant hybrids with pure American Chestnuts.

 By this backcrossing they now have a tree which is a fungus resistant American Chestnut. Well, to be precise I guess its 94% American Chestnut and 6% Chinese Chestnut but still what an amazing accomplishment.

I admire the folks who did this work. Others may have spent their energy pushing for a ban on all ornamental trees or feeding the squirrels displaced by the lack of nuts, I should specify edible nuts when discussing possible reactions.

These folks at The American Chestnut Foundation thought the problem through, decided on a practical and more importantly possible solution, and then quietly set about the work.

They have saved a species. Because of their quiet dedication we, or our children, will someday see the restoration of the natural forests of North America.

They are the sort of folks I'd like to hear more from on issues such as climate change.

The Carnivorous Plants of Nova Scotia

In honour of Halloween, I’m going to tell you about a fascinating part of the natural history of Nova Scotia. We have several varieties of meat-eating plants!

Technically they are insectivorous – they eat bugs but still, think about it. Plants that capture and digest insects are surprisingly common here.

We have a plant called the pitcher plant, three types of Sundew, a killer called the Butterwort and lots of Bladderworts.

The plants hunt in different ways from passive traps to actively luring the victim with the promise of sweets then slamming a door shut behind them.

The pitcher plant looks like a vase with water in it. When an insect falls in, the downward facing hairs lining the pitcher keep the prey from climbing back out.

The liquid in the base of the vase is an enzyme rich soup that breaks the insect down so that its nutrients can be absorbed by the plant.

Slightly more aggressive is the Sundew.

It hunts by using sticky hairs to trap the bug and then gradually folds more of the sticky hairs and its leaves around the victim, trapping and slowly digesting it.

We have three of these hunters here, the Round Leaved, the Narrow Leaved and a very rare Sundew called the Thread Leaved Sundew, which is endangered now but there are still a few in boggy places around Shelburne.

 It’s a tiny plant big ones are only about 10 centimeters tall.

The Butterwort hunts by using a sticky coating on its leaves. It is just like fly paper. An insect lands on it and is unable to escape before the slow enfolding of the leaves traps it.

The name of this plant comes from the Old English word for plant, “wort”. The butter part of the name may refer to the sticky goo on its leaves.

The champion and most active hunter in the group is the Bladderwort.

This is a common submergent plant seen in boggy ponds. There are a lot of varieties.

It has a series of bladder-like structures along its stems. These bladders are really traps. They are hollow with a tiny door at one end surrounded by hairs.

The trap secretes a sweet liquid that acts as bait. When an unsuspecting victim approaches the plant and stimulates the trigger hairs surrounding the bladders- snap!

The door flies open and the insect is sucked inside to be slowly digested.

The thing these plants have in common is that they have all evolved to live in the acidic, low-nutrient bogs and swamps of Nova Scotia. What they can’t get from the water and soil they get by hunting.

To me, that's amazing.