To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Butternut info needed
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2009 17:58:15 -0500
Sarah,
I have a humongous Butternut in my yard; very productive and I could
send you lots of nuts, no charge. BUT the butternuts around here (NW
Conn and more so farther south) have a fungus(a butternut canker),
usually fatal. The state has tagged and added my tree to a study. I
don't know if the disease is transfered by the nuts but would imagine
it might be. The squirrels plant lots of these nuts, so I have many
saplings and young trees, but I don't know if they are diseased...
they do grow well with no help from me.
The state came and took a DNA sample from my tree as they think some
of the local butternuts (Juglans cinerea) may actually be a natural
hybrid with, I believe, the Black Walnut (Juglans nigra). The tree I
have has Butternut shaped nuts. I'm in zone 5, so my tree is not
necessarily adapted to your area. The state said the tree no doubt
has the canker (there is a large "comprimised area" on part of the
trunk; in spite of that it is thriving.