Chestnut

Formerly the chestnut was ranked as one of the most important wildlife plants of the eastern US and was a dominant tree in western Virginia. Today, the American chestnut is virtually non-existent, and then only as a sprout that rarely reaches nut-producing age. It was killed by a fungus disease introduced from Asia in 1904 and was eliminated from the continent within 30 years. A related species, the chinkapin, is a shrub that survives the blight. Another related species, the Chinese chestnut, has been planted in schoolyards, but little is known its importance to wildlife. Chestnuts have been cultivated for food by humans the world over. In North America, Native Americans, and later the European and other races that followed, ate chestnuts and fed them to their livestock.