The Chinese chestnut is being crossed with the American chestnut to create a species resistant to the blight that has plagued the tree in North America.
The plan is to end up with an exact copy of the American chestnut of old, a tall, straight-grained, rot-resistant tree without limbs for the first 40-50ft, that was valued for its high quality timber.
The American Chestnut Foundation hopes that the new variety that it is working on can be used to reforest the large areas that have been devastated by the chestnut blight.
