Master Trees or something

So a while back I found a playlist on youtube that had 72 hours of video from a Bill Mollison/Geoff Lawton PDC course. It was pretty awesome, but it has since been removed. During the series Bill was talking about how trees are rated in different categories (being true to seed was one of them, I think) and very rarely there is a tree that excels in all categories and there was a term for it. He went on to talk about how he knew a guy that had one of those trees and he sold individual acorns for $$$. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, know any more info, or where I could find said trees?

I think trees are usually heterozygous, so maybe the "master tree" was homozygous for all the desired characteristics?  That's the only thing that comes to mind

Howdy Valerie,

I remember what you're talking about, and I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in this lecture series.

Bill being the master of digression that he was though, I couldn't tell you where specifically it's at, but I remember the discussion.

It took almost a year, but I found the video series and skimmed through till I found it. Here's a link to the video on youtube:
https://youtu.be/9E4ab3Z5aKM?t=29m42s

I wrote it out to the best of my ability. If anyone has anyone has any leads to these trees, please let me know. =)

Day 1 Part 3 Methods of Design starting at 29:42

I have another friend, he owns an oak tree. I’ve forgotten the name of the oak, it’s a famous oak. It’s— I nearly had it. I think it’s the Ashforth Oak, and every acorn he sells for about $10 or $15. The reason is, the Ashforth Oak is a famous cultivar. Now, trees have characteristics which are good for us, and you classify them, and if everything about that tree is good, then it becomes and elite tree. It’s a french word, well-spoken. It’s a well spoken tree, it behaves itself, and produces abundant acorns which have no tannins at all, mind you. You just pick them up and eat them. So it’s of great value. Put them trough the mincer and make bread, bang. So, a lot of acorns, are very edible, and it’s a very reliable bearer. It’s a white oak, so it has them every year. If it was a black oak, it has them every second. An élite tree, he sells the acorns one at a time and you pay him $15 and you’ve got your Ashforth Oak. And the other thing about a good élite tree, it duplicates its characteristics in its seed. And this one does too. And this fellow actually was a member of a North American wild nuts society. It was full of total wild nutters, really. And he inherited it from Mr. Ashforth, who found it. And he said to him, “You can have this after I die," so in the end, he’s the owner of the Ashforth Oak. I’ve met him. I have met the owner of the Ashforth Oak. How many people have you been to who have an élite tree? None, I know. You’re not, more or less, you’re not very notorious. You have to sow through a lot of nutters to strike something like that. And that tree is worth hundred of thousands of dollars to him. My wife and I have planted an acre of oaks, of 6 varieties, and we’re just hoping to get even one élite tree out of it and retire for life, aren’t we? One oak tree? Yeah. So, we’re anxiously waiting. We haven’t had an acorn yet. We have a lot of trees growing, but no acorns yet. Okay… We’re sticking to design… I don’t know how I got onto élite trees...

The ashford oak is arbre bien parlé.