Last month we visited Vancouver. While we were walking through Stanley Park we came across what looked like a Chestnut tree. I have never seen a Chestnut tree this large, and thought it was not possible for them to get this big before they got the blight. A few questions: 1) Is this really a Chestnut tree? If so, what type? 2) Is Chestnut blight not in this area of the continent? The GPS coordinates of the tree are N 49d 17.902', W123d 7.975' BTW, Stanley Park is awesome as is the UBC garden!
OK, thanks Ron. We were told by the naturalists at an Ohio state park that as soon as the bark cracks on a Chestnut tree in Ohio the bark turns orange from the fungus and it kills it within a year, but if a particular species is immune... If anybody knows what type of Chestnut tree that is I am really curious. If it would be possible to plant one in Ohio and not have it die that would be great. I asked the employees taking care of the grounds at Stanley park what it was, and they told me the only chestnut trees they knew of around there were horse chestnuts (they have hundreds of them at Stanley Park) and those are not actually "Chestnuts".
I believe that some Garden Centre around Vancouver do carry chestnuts tree. A friend of my have 5 trees of edible chestnuts, the trees are very healthy, they set a lot fruits, but the summer season here in Vancouver is very short to produce a good quality chestnuts. The second problem are the squirrels; they take them all.
I'd suspect the most likely is Sweet Chestnut C. sativa (the best-adapted species to the Vancouver climate), but chestnut identification isn't at all easy. I don't see why not - Sweet Chestnut produces decent crops right up to northern Scotland (57°30'N), where summers are much cooler than in Vancouver. Big trees, too, one at Castle Leod near Inverness is 27m tall with a trunk 8 metres circumference (2.55m diameter).
