Last whiff of roast chestnuts on an open fire

THE festive scent of roasting chestnuts could be absent next Christmas because of a double threat to trees, the Royal Horticultural Society has warned.

Britain’s sweet chestnut trees are battling the invasive oriental gall wasp as well as a deadly blight that completely wiped out the species in the US in the early 20th century.

The wasp, which has a black body and orange brown legs, produces larvae which feed on the buds of the trees. It was first discovered in the UK in 2015 in Farningham Woods, near Sevenoaks, Kent, and in a street in St Albans, Herts.

But in the past two years it has spread throughout the South East and has recently been found in Devon, Dorset, London and Reading.

Experts are warning that the combination of pest and disease could have a huge impact on the millions of chestnut trees in Britain and the RHS is calling for gardeners to familiarise themselves with the symptoms.

Andy Salisbury, principal entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “Chestnut trees are an integral part of the British landscape and common in parks, woodland and larger gardens where they are favoured for their speedy growth, handsome spiralling bark, large glossy leaves and tasty crop.

“The combination of the wasp and blight poses a very real threat to the UK’S millions of sweet chestnut trees

‘The combination of the wasp and blight poses a very real threat’

and points to the importance of remaining vigilant against new and emerging pest and diseases and the importance of plant health controls.”

Chestnut gall wasp symptoms include red coloured ball-like growths of more than an inch in diameter, as well as early leaf drop. For chestnut blight, gardeners should look out for cankers, sand-coloured fungus and reddy-orange pustules.

The warning was made in National Tree Week, which runs until Sunday, with the RHS urging the public to report information about the state of the nation’s trees to the Forestry Commission’s Tree Alert service.