Rare American Chestnut Trees Discovered

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060518/ap_on_sc/chestnut_discovery  

To find a living colony of American chestnut in forest is outstanding news.  The American chestnut was almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904.  Considering the American chestnuts once made up about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern United States, with an estimated 4 billion trees from Maine to Mississippi and Florida and could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more the loss of these trees was significant.

I'm guessing this colony of American chestnuts survived because it was in a location that was dryer then the fungus could handle, but I'm hoping these trees have some resistance to the fungus. Either way the Chestnut Foundation is already on the job...

<blockquote>"When the flowers are right, we're going to rush down and pollinate the flowers, collect the seeds a few weeks later and collect the nuts," Klaus said. "If we ever find a genetic solution to the chestnut blight, genes from that tree will find their way into those trees."</blockquote>