Willamette

‘Willamette’ (C. mollissima) is another OP offspring selected from among the widely available Dunstan population. The population is derived from a putative and lost C. dentata tree (described as blight-resistant) and three C. mollissima cultivars ‘Nanking’, ‘Kuling’, and ‘Meiling’ (morphological characteristics and DNA markers indicate no C. dentata ancestry in the Dunstan population). The tree has an upright growth habit and matures during the mid-season to late season in Missouri. The flavor of the nut is slightly unusual, and the nut is better cooked than raw, which is a characteristic it shares with one of its probable ancestors, ‘Meiling’. Its nuts usually have double embryos and were inconsistent in size in Missouri, where they are often very small (Gold and Hunt, 2002; Nave, 1998).