Chestnuts

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The first picture here is of chestnuts, collected immediately in front of the geology building.  The are the nuts “roasted on an open fire” of Bing Crosby fame.  Chestnuts were once the most prolific tress in the current United States, much as the Passenger Pigeon was likely the most prolific dinosaur (sorry Jason, bird!) in the US.  It was once said that a squirrel could cross the entire eastern half of the country moving from one chestnut tree to another and never touch the ground. But the chestnut trees had a blight that started some 150 years ago and has virtually wiped them out.  Chestnuts, though a different species, survive in Poland, but they too are under threat, here by a parasite of some kind.  The trees line the roads here and are very majestic – think of oak, but taller.