The Ozark Chinquapin (Castanea pumila var ozarkensis) is a small tree in the chestnut family that was once widespread throughout the Ozarks. The little nut produced in large spiny clusters is involved in Ozark folklore, but nowadays it is just too rare to find. Sadly, the chestnut blight has devastated populations of this species, just as it did its cousin the American Chestnut. Where individual trees still occur, stems are top-killed after just a few years of growth, creating a multi-trunked shrub that never achieves its natural growth form.
 

Nickel Preserve staff are helping to restore this important tree to its historic place in Ozark woodlands. Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis with the University of Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station is working to develop a blight-resistant Ozark Chinquapin. Preserve staff recently collected more than a thousand nuts to send off for propagation.

Ozark chinquapin leaf Dr. Anagnostakis seeks to achieve blight-resistance through genetic crossing with blight-resistant individuals developed from the Chinese Chestnut. The first cross will be between the strongest Ozark Chinquapin seedlings (from the Nickel Preserve) and the most blight-resistant American/Chinese chestnut hybrids from the American Chestnut Foundation. These seedlings will be backcrossed to an Ozark Chinquapin. Resulting seedlings showing DNA markers of blight resistance will be then be crossed. In each successive generation, only seedlings showing resistance are backcrossed to Ozark Chinquapins until its characters and resistance are all that remain. The desired result is expected to emerge in 3 to 4 generations. A generation is about 7 years, so we may have viable blight-resistant Ozark Chinquapins in 20 to 30 years.

The American Chestnut Foundation has been working for many years to bring back the American Chestnut, once a dominant giant of the eastern forests. They now have 7/8 and 15/16 American Chestnuts near seed-bearing age that have demonstrated good resistance when challenged directly with the blight fungus. These trees will bear blight-resistant nuts from which the chestnut forests of the future will grow.

Nature picture credits: Photo © George Pierson (Ozark chinquapin leaf)