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nafex - Re: [nafex] Beechnut

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: nafex@egroups.com
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Beechnut
  • Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:03:13 -0600

At 07:32 PM 01/15/2001 -0500, David Consolvo wrote:
>In a park today I spent a lovely 20 minutes in the sun cracking and eating
>beechnuts with my six-year-old son. They are fairly easy to open with
>teeth, and the taste was most pleasant, but they sure are small. Are there
>cultivars available which have been selected or bred for size and other
>attributes?

To my knowledge, there has been little, if any, selection for nut size,
quality, or production in American beech; but I'll be interested to hear
from folks who know of any.
Most of the European beech selections have been made for aesthetic
qualities - purple, copper, variegated, cut/lace leaves, weeping,
fastigiate, or twisted conformation, etc.

While pomefruits, stonefruits, and even Persian/Carpathian walnuts have
been subjected to selection by humans for hundreds or thousands of years,
intense selection & breeding of native American fruits and nuts is pretty
much in its infancy - significant selection pressure has only been being
exerted on American nut tree species in the past 100 years or so, if you're
of a mind to disregard the seedling orchards of oaks and hickories planted
by the indigenous peoples.


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY







  • [nafex] Beechnut, David A. Consolvo, 01/15/2001
    • Re: [nafex] Beechnut, Lucky Pittman, 01/16/2001

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