Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

Common forest trees of North Carolina

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-9696.jpg
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  • FOREST ' -e> -^p«$i>-s=; -e> -#&p<e^>- ^s> -m*-^^ -e> -#^<^>^ CHESTNUT (Castanca dentata Borkh.) OVER the Southern States the chestnut is native to the hilly and mountain sections. It is one of our most useful trees and as such, has been called the "farmer's best friend." The long-pointed leaves with their coarse teeth, each bearing a slender spine, are quite distinctive. They are simple, alternate, average 5 to 10 inches in CHESTNUT Leaf, one-third natural size. Twig, one-half natural size. length, and are dark green in color. The flowers are of two kinds on the same tree, the long, slender, whitish catkins opening in midsummer. The fruit is a prickly burr, which opens at the first frost, or earlier, and drops 2 or 3 shiny, brown, sweet, edible nuts. The bark becomes broken into light-gray, broad, flat ridges, which often have a tendency toward a spiral course around the trunk. The wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, and very durable in contact with the soil—qualities which make it particularly valuable for posts, poles, crossties, as well as for light building construction. The wood is rich in tannin, and in the southern Appalachians it is extensively cut and used for the extraction of this valuable commercial product. A bark disease, known as the chestnut blight, is proving fatal to the chestnut, and has already practically exterminated the tree over much of northeastern United States. It has already reached portions of Virginia and North Carolina. 84
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