st3v3cook3
Infrared View of Ancient Sweet Chestnut Tree (Castanea sativa), Croft Castle, Herefordshire
This huge ancient sweet chestnut tree pollard, with a trunk girth of 9.55m, stands towards the eastern end of the magnificent 'Sweet Chestnut Avenue', an avenue of ancient sweet chestnut trees about 1km in length. Sadly, many are slowly dying from Cinnamon fungus or Ink disease (Phytophthora cinnamomic), but they are ‘dead beautiful’ as giant sun bleached hulks. Seeds from these trees are being propagated by the National Trust in the hope that they will germinate into disease resistant trees.
Thought to be 400-500 years old, this fits well with the story that says sweet chestnuts were taken from captured Spanish ships and planted at Croft Castle between 1580 and 1680. These lines of chestnuts are called 'Armada Chestnuts' because there is a legend that they were raised from nuts found in the pocket of a Spanish sailor wrecked during the attempted Armada invasion in 1588. Most of the legends clustering around old trees are far-fetched; this one is fetched further than most.
Infrared View of Ancient Sweet Chestnut Tree (Castanea sativa), Croft Castle, Herefordshire
This huge ancient sweet chestnut tree pollard, with a trunk girth of 9.55m, stands towards the eastern end of the magnificent 'Sweet Chestnut Avenue', an avenue of ancient sweet chestnut trees about 1km in length. Sadly, many are slowly dying from Cinnamon fungus or Ink disease (Phytophthora cinnamomic), but they are ‘dead beautiful’ as giant sun bleached hulks. Seeds from these trees are being propagated by the National Trust in the hope that they will germinate into disease resistant trees.
Thought to be 400-500 years old, this fits well with the story that says sweet chestnuts were taken from captured Spanish ships and planted at Croft Castle between 1580 and 1680. These lines of chestnuts are called 'Armada Chestnuts' because there is a legend that they were raised from nuts found in the pocket of a Spanish sailor wrecked during the attempted Armada invasion in 1588. Most of the legends clustering around old trees are far-fetched; this one is fetched further than most.