What are people gathering on Persimmon Tree Road in Bethesda?

[Anonymous]

I live near here and drive this road regularly, sometimes multiple times a day. On the span that is across the street from lower Avenel there is a small subdivision that is heavily wooded. On the street side of the residential fence I have seen people collecting something from the ground all this week. This afternoon I saw a couple pulling a very heavy wheeled shopping cart from the area.I saw a lady get dropped off to collect this evening. I also saw this last year and wondered what fruit or nut they were picking up. All the people who are collecting are older Asians. What's in season that could fall from a tree that's desirable to Asian palates?

[Anonymous]

persimmons?

[Anonymous]

paw paw or persimmon

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's persimmons as the trees are really, really tall, not low like apple trees, and you can't make out any color from the road either--I think I would at least be able to see some orange if that were the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's persimmons as the trees are really, really tall, not low like apple trees, and you can't make out any color from the road either--I think I would at least be able to see some orange if that were the case.

Maybe the birds eat all the visible ones, and those that fall from inside aren't visible from the road.

[Anonymous]

Chestnuts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chestnuts?

There are no more chestnuts -- they were wiped out by some kind of blight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chestnuts?

There are no more chestnuts -- they were wiped out by some kind of blight.

The internet supports the chestnut poster. From a Georgetown Univ. website:

"There are large isolated trees that still survive and fruit in the U.S. I visited a large, spreading tree near Pellston, MI (in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula) in 1978, which might still be alive. Other large American Chestnuts live in northern Michigan at the periphery of the American Chestnut's original range. A 30-foot American Chestnut grows at the Mohican Swimming Pool, Bethesda, MD. It might have survived as a seedling during the great chestnut die off. About 10 50-foot chestnut trees grow on Persimmon Tree Road, near Holly-leaf Road, Bethesda, MD. These large surviving trees might be American Chestnuts that are resistant to the Chestnut Blight, have escaped it, or both."

[Anonymous]

The American Chestnut Blight indeed killed off most of the American Chestnut trees. Now scientists are trying to cross the american chestnut with the chinese chestnut that is blight resistant.

The seeds of surviving chestnut trees are collected and sowed in an attempt to get resistant saplings.

[Anonymous]

There are still chestnuts in America. My grandparents in Missouri would get them every winter to roast on their stove.

[Anonymous]

My guess Paw Paw or Osage Oranges.

[Anonymous]

Are they collecting golf balls from the golf course?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they collecting golf balls from the golf course?

but why would this only be in the fall?

[Anonymous]

I know its Bethesda and everyone frowns on it, but you could try being neighborly and chatting them up to find out what they're doing.

[Anonymous]

Shake them 'simmons down.