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The endangered butternut

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SeaWalnut:
The butternut its the only american walnut that i would give it somme space on my land ,mostly because.its endangered and there is fear that in a few decades might go completely extinct.Its the only walnut thats comparable with Juglans Regia in cold hardiness and taste and actually tastes a little better than J Regia and its a little more cold hardy.The butternut also known as the white walnut ,its the shortest lived walnut ,living up to just 70 years but this is also an advantage for a grower because it will start fruiting fast( its also the fastest fruit bearing walnut,in 4-5 years.makes nuts).In USA they made hibrids with Juglans Ailantifolia,an asian walnut specie, wich are resistant to the butternut kanker ,but a hybrid its not like the original.I had a few white walnut seeds from wich 3 germinated but i lost the seedlings.Will try again soon but only if im sure the seeds are coming from the pure specie.Seeing manny americans planting black walnuts on their property made me to start this thread with the intention that it might convince a few to plant white walnuts instead of black walnuts.

SeaWalnut:
This is how thick the shell of the white walnut is.And its called butternut because the native americans used to boil the nuts and collect the fat that was rising on the surface of the water so that they avoid cracking them.Altough its indeed verry fat,the fats from it are the healthy type and its the healthyest walnut for that reason,followed by the carpathian walnut.Black walnuts are not that healthy because they live in hotter climates and the hotter the climate is,the worst they taste and the less they have the good, heart protective oils .

pvaldes:
As this is a local problem, many people in Europe hadn't heard about it probably.

In resume: Juglans cinerea (an american tree relative to walnut) is declining fast, killed by Ophiognomonia clavigignenti‐juglandacearum, an asian fungus with three strains in USA. Other problem is that the original species could be being replaced by hybrid trees undistinguisable but more resistent to pathogen

A non virulent strain of the fungus were present before 1960s and a different strain much more virulent was introducted in MInessota and Wisconsin around 1967.  In some places more than 75% of the trees were wiped and natural regeneration is not going well.

The mortality is patched showing that the kind of ecosystem is important. Optimal habitats for restoration may be different from habitats where butternut has historically occurred. Trees survive better in dry upland places and inside bigger mixed forests, but saplings aren't shade tolerant so need some disturbance of the forest to stablish.

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756827/

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