Driving directions
Mt. Vernon, Lawrence County
Horticulture Workshops, Conferences & News
Workshop Information
* Drip Irrigation
Field Day
* September 14, 2012
Ag. Education Day
* September 13, 2012
Southwest Center FFA Workshop
* March 8, 2012
SW CTR Grazing Dairy
Maestro Program
Research
People
Contact us
Email: Carla Rathmann
Superintendent:
Dr. Mike Collins, bio
14548 Highway H
Mt. Vernon, MO 65712
Phone: 417-466-2148
FAX: 417-466-2109
Email: CollinsMic@missouri.edu
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Southwest Center RUMINATIONS
Oct - Dec 2006
Vol. 12, No. 4
Ozark Chinkapin Project Initiated in Southwest Missouri
By Andrew L. Thomas, Patrick L. Byers, and Skip Mourglia
The Ozark Chinkapin (Castanea ozarkensis) is a well-known nut tree,
native to southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas, that is facing
extinction. The once-vigorous natural stands of Ozark chinkapin have
been devastated by chestnut blight, the same disease that killed
billions of related American chestnut (Castanea dentata) trees in
eastern North America over the last century. This fungal disease was
accidentally introduced to New York from Asia in 1904 on imported
nursery stock of resistant oriental chestnut species. The blight
spread throughout the natural range of the American chestnut, and
eventually reached the Ozarks in the 1960's. Within a decade, the
Ozark hills were littered with the dead, rotresistant carcasses of
Ozark chinquapin trees that sometimes reached 60 feet high and 24
inches in diameter. Today, the chinkapin survives mostly as root
suckers that re-sprout after the above-ground portion of the tree is
killed, and therefore very few seeds are produced to re-populate the
species. To date, no truly blightresistant Ozark chinkapin trees have
been identified.
One can only imagine the historical and ecological significance of
this species. Many Ozark natives fondly remember stuffing their
pockets with "chinkapins" on their walks to school. They were a
seasonal, sweet, nutritious treat eaten by humans, livestock, and
wildlife. Small trees were used for fence posts due to their natural
rot resistance. Ozark chinkapin is listed as "Imperiled" by the
Missouri Natural Heritage Program, yet no formal recovery plan is in
place, and the plight of this important Ozark species has been
seriously neglected.
Despite long-term research focused on American chestnut, no cure for
chestnut blight has been found. Until a treatment or resistant trees
are developed, ex situ conservation (carefully-managed cultivation) is
probably the best hope for the survival of this species. Before much
else can be done to resurrect the species, we must first learn how to
cultivate and propagate the tree, especially through grafting. Indeed,
very little published information on chinkapin propagation and
cultivation is available, and most of our current "knowledge" on
propagation is based on unproven hunches. No known research orchards
of Ozark chinquapin are presently in existence.
Thanks to a grant from the Northern Nut Growers Association, three
orchards of Ozark chinkapin will be established this fall and winter
in southwest Missouri. The grant was received by a consortium of
people and institutions: University of Missouri's SW Center at Mt.
Vernon, Missouri State University's State Fruit Experiment Station at
Mountain Grove, and the USDA - NRCS - RC&D (Resource Conservation and
Development) office in Republic. The orchards will be established at
Mt. Vernon, Mountain Grove, and a private forest in Barry County.
This timely grant comes on the heels of the recent launch of the
"Ozark Chinkapin Initiative" of the American Chestnut Foundation, as
well as the establishment of the "Ozark Chinquapin Foundation", both
of which promise to bring public interest and funding to the
critically threatened Ozark chinkapin tree. Other people and
institutions also seem to be finally jumping on the bandwagon to save
this tree. Realistically, we know that resurrecting the Ozark
chinkapin will be very challenging and costly, and that we may very
well fail. But we are pleased to be taking this simple but major first
step in establishing three diverse research orchards in Missouri, and
are confident that this generous NNGA grant will inspire other
individuals and institutions to provide additional and more
substantial resources for this cause.
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