"presley" wrote:
Well there are some inaccuracies in your statements. Carpathian walnuts are
the same species as English walnuts, just a hardier variety of the same
species found growing in Eastern Europe. Black Walnuts are great for eating
and rich in oils - but have a very hard shell and outer hull - some people
have found they do best by driving their cars over the outer hulls to
separate out the walnuts.
Most commercial walnuts are not species but hybrids. In California they
use 30 different hybrids of English Walnut (Juglan regina). In addition
to these commercial varieties, there are also different strains of
Juglan regina including the German, Italian or Carpathian which are
hardier and do well in colder climates. The original (English)
variation of the species planted in England came from Persia or Iran and
is much more tender. Hardier strains were collected from high in the
Carpathian Mountains, which extend from Slovakia and southern Poland
southeast through the Western Ukraine to northeast Romania.
The Persian/English strains will grow in the northeastern US where I
live but nut production is very poor or non existent. Harsh winters
leave a lot of dead branches. However, the Carpathian strains will do
quite well. They are usually grafted on English walnut or black walnut
rootstocks.
For a nice read on this visit:
http://www.songonline.ca/nuts/persian_walnut.htm
A parallel situation exists with Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Christmas trees which are grown from seed collected in many different
states at many different elevations from Canada to Texas and from sea
level to over 6,000 ft. They are all the same species, but they are
quite different. By knowing latitude and altitude of where the seed was
collected, you can predict where it will do well.
The taxonomic handling of such variation is often handled by forming
subspecies or groups. The difference is not enough to form different
species, but quite significant when looking for source material for
different areas.
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