Dunstan
Castanea dentata × C. mollissima
The record
- Parentage
- Castanea dentata × C. mollissima
- Origin
- Dr. Robert T. Dunstan · Greensboro, North Carolina · budwood collected 1950; crosses made from 1953
- Rights
- trademarked name — Sold as Dunstan Chestnut™ by Chestnut Hill Nursery. Individual selections from this breeding line have carried US plant patents — see ‘Willamette’ — but a trademark covers the selling name, not propagation.
- Also known as
- Dunstan Chestnut™
- Blight
- Selected for the blight resistance of the Chinese parent
Description
The most heavily marketed chestnut in North America, and a useful lesson in reading a name. In 1950 James Carpenter of Salem, Ohio found a single American chestnut standing healthy in a grove of dead and dying trees, and challenged it with live blight spores without producing infection. He sent budwood to Dr. Robert T. Dunstan in Greensboro, North Carolina, who grafted it and crossed it with USDA-released Chinese chestnut selections.
What this record can state is the mark. The name is sold as Dunstan Chestnut™ by Chestnut Hill Nursery, and a trademark restricts what a plant may be called, not whether it may be propagated. Propagation is a separate question, settled by patents: a selection out of this same breeding line, ‘Willamette’, was granted US Plant Patent PP7195 in 1990. Read the two rights separately before assuming either one binds you.
Where to find it
- Chestnut Hill Nursery the trademark holder