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["" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Subject : RE: [NAFEX] Protecting a Little-Known Tree From an Insidious 
Disease(New York Times)

 Protecting a Little-Known Tree From an Insidious Disease       (from
the New York Times)     A fungal disease first observed 29 years ago has
since infected over 90 percent of butternut trees throughout their
native range.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/science/earth/28butter.html?th&emc=th  

Sam and all:
There was an article in the NNGA Nutshell within the last year or two, by Dr. 
Charles Spurgeon, of Indianapolis, IN on his experience with butternut 
canker/blight in his orchard of grafted butternuts.
Some of the named varieties of 'butternut', which have been propagated for 
decades have, upon DNA analysis, been ascertained to actually be hybrids of 
butternut with Japanese walnut or its budsport, the heartnut.
Resistance is not an all-or-nothing effect, though, as some known Buarts and 
Butter-Japs, exhibit varying degrees of resistance to the fungus.

A number of folks throughout the native range of the butternut have been 
studying the effects of the fungus, as well as searching for potentially 
blight/canker-resistant trees for use in breeding programs.

Lucky