Chestnut - castanea

« Macadamia - macadamia integrifolia, m. tetraphylla | Home | Oyster Nut: telfairia pedata, telfairia occidentalis »

Chestnut - castanea

By goodadmin | January 18, 2008

Chestnut castanea, is a genus of eight species of nut trees and shrubs in the beech family. Most of the species are large trees growing to 20-40 m tall. The leaves are ovate, 10-30 cm long and 4-10 cm broad, with pointed, widely-spaced teeth. The flowers are catkins produced in mid summer with an unpleasant odor. Flowers of both kinds are borne on every tree.

The fruit is a spiny capsule 5-10 cm in diameter, containing one to seven nuts. Chestnut trees thrive on neutral and acidic soils but do best on sandy or sandy loam soil that drains well.

The nuts are an important food crop in eastern Asia and in southern Europe. They differ from other nuts in being mainly carbohydrates with little or no protein. They can be eaten boiled or roasted or ground into flour and use to prepare bread, pasta, cakes and for cooking with traditional dishes. Chestnuts taste somewhat sweet.

The wood is very durable and is made in items used for fencing, flooring and wooden barrels for the ageing of balsamic vinegar. Post made from the wood can last for more than 50 years in the ground.

The chestnut is easily propagated by grafting on seedling rootstock or by butting. Rootstock for grafting should be seedlings of the same species. For seedling trees nuts must be gathered as soon as they fall and stored over the winder and plant in early spring

Chestnut American castanea dentata This large tree produces the sweetest nuts of all species but is now almost extinct as a result of the chestnut fungus, Endothia parasitica

Chestnut Japanese castanea crenata
The Japanese chestnut varies in size from a small bush to a large tree. It produces the largest nuts of all the species. Seedlings can produce nuts as early as two years.

Chestnut Chinese castanea mollicima
This long-lived, hardy and attractive tree is the most successful of all the species in terms of nut production. It is tolerant to a wide range of soil and climate conditions and also resistant to the chestnut blight Endothia paracitica.

Chestnut Spanish castanea sativa
This is a medium to large tree that grows almost on any type of soil and can withstand hard frosts. A good tree can produce at least 100kg of nuts.

Chinquapin castanea pumila
This is an attractive, evergreen tree native to northern America. It grows 20-30 meters tall, adapts to many soils and it is very cold tolerant. Nuts are sweet and resemble pointed round acorns.

chestnut

visit my other sites

Herb-Garden World

all about fruit and nut bearing trees