Norris
BRIEF:
An old TVA-linked selection with an unusual habit: its female flowers open before its males. Reported to draw fewer weevils than the trees around it.
DETAILED:
Norris is one of the more obscure trees in our collection, and one of the more intriguing. It takes its name from Norris, Tennessee, once the site of a Tennessee Valley Authority experiment station, and comes to us by way of Empire Chestnut Company in Ohio.
Two things are recorded about it. The first is that Greg Williams, who published Hort Ideas and founded the International Tree Crops Association, noticed that Norris seemed to draw fewer weevils than the chestnut trees growing around it in Gravel Switch, Kentucky. That is one grower's observation rather than a trial, but weevils are the pest that most often ruins a crop, so it is worth watching.
The second is stranger. Norris opens its female flowers before its male ones. Most chestnuts do the reverse. It means the tree is ready to be pollinated before it has any pollen of its own to offer, which matters a great deal when you are deciding what to plant beside it.
Beyond that, very little has been written about Norris anywhere. It appears on none of the standard cultivar lists. We may end up knowing more about this tree than anyone.