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["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

Mark, this reminds me of an earlier thread, which was about precocious
walnuts.  I recently found this abstract:  

ISHS Acta Horticulturae 442: III International Walnut Congress
 
PRECOCIOUS MATURING WALNUT POPULATIONS ORGINATING FROM CENTRAL ASIA:
THEIR BEHAVIOUR IN FRANCE.
 
Authors:    E. Germain, F. Delort, V. Kanivets
 
Abstract:
 
The behavior of 873 walnut seedlings from trees originating from Central
Asia and growing in the Central Botanical Garden of Kiev (Ukraine), was
studied in the South-West part of France.
 
Observations made near Bordeaux since 1993, have shown that this
material presents some unfavorable characters such as an early bud-break
and a high susceptibility to bacterial blight.  However, these seedlings
also possess very unusual characteristics, so far unobserved in European
walnut (Juglans regia L.) populations: compact trees with a basitonic
tendency, very early flowering sometimes occurring in the year of
sowing, protogyny, lateral bud fruitfulness on very short shoots, nuts
in clusters, very precocious maturing (i.e., as early as the second or
third year after planting), high productivity, flowering occurring in
successive waves, the flower induction continuing through much of the
vegetative season without stopping organogenesis and hermaphrodism of
inflorescences in the case of second and subsequent flowerings. 

This plant material is very valuable for scientific use such as
potential parents in future variety breeding programs, models to go
deeper into fundamental studies on reproduction physiology or "bonsai"
types to use in the field of ornamental trees. 
 
-- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn.
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Mark Lee
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 2:28 PM
To: Brungardt, Sam
Subject: [NAFEX] Kobo chestnut [GFI-T19321-422B33E75A7D2BFD]


I ran across a description of a chestnut in Japan that bears nuts very
early, often when the tree is only 3 feet tall.  Does anyone have any
more information on this Kobo Chestnut? See the information that I found
in the text below. -Mark Lee, Seattle, zone 8a
-----------------------------------------------------
A Japanese Folktale:
"The Kobo Chestnut Trees"
In the mountains around Fukiage Pass in Nagura-mura, Kita Shidara-gun,
grow chestnut trees called Kobo chestnuts. Those trees bear fruit very
young, even when they are only 3 feet high. Hundreds of years ago there
was a big chestnut tree on this pass. Boys would rush to climb it to
pick the chestnuts, but little children could not climb the tree. One
day while they were weeping, a traveling priest passed by, saw the
little children crying, and said: "Well, you shall be able to pick the
chestnuts from next year on." The next year every small young chestnut
tree bore fruit so that the little children could pick them easily. The
villagers thought that the traveling priest must have been St. Kobo, and
since then they have called these the Kobo chestnut trees.

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