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| FOGGED IN |
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| AMERICAN CHESTNUT IN FLOWER |
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| DEEPLY FU RROWED BARK |
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| TWIN TRUNKS |
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| SHARPLY TOOTHED LEAF |
Sunday, 8:15 AM. 79 degrees, wind SE, calm. The sky is mostly clear and the barometer predicts sunny skies. The channel is fogged in and it is very humid. It will be a hot one today, at least in Bayfield terms, and everyone will be complaining about it.
The huge old American chestnut, Castanea dentata, in the beech family (Fagaceae), on the corner of 8th St. and Manypenny, is beginning to bloom on the highest branches. This is a massive old twin-trunked tree, the only large, mature American chestnut I have seen. It seems in pretty good health, unaffected by the chestnut blight which wiped out most of its contemporaries in the early Twentieth Century. My guess is that the tree is older than the historic home it stands in front of, and is an original Bayfield forest remnant. The most evient flowers, on long feathery spikes, are the male; the female flowes are located at the base of the male spikes and are not veery obvious at this point.
If in Bayfield drive by to see this rare tree, but don’t confuse it with an equally large red oak which is next to it. I have heard there are some chestnut trees on the Apostle Highlands golf course but I have not as yet seen them.
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