Chestnut
Bush chinkapin*
C. crenata - Japanese chestnut
C. dentata - American chestnut
C. henryi - Henry's chestnut
C. mollissima - Chinese chestnut
C. ozarkensis - Ozark chinkapin
C. pumila - Alleghany chinkapin
C. sativa - Sweet chestnut
C. seguinii - Seguin's chestnut
*treated as a synonym of C. pumila
by many authors
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Chestnuts (
Castanea), including the
chinkapins, are a genus of eight or nine species of
trees and
shrubs in the
beech family
Fagaceae. The name also refers to the
nuts produced by these trees. Most are tall trees to 30-40m tall, but some species (the chinkapins) are
shrubby. All are
deciduous.
Castanea species are trees and shrubs with simple, ovate or lanceolate leaves with sharply-pointed, widely-spaced teeth, with rounded sinuses between. The fruit is a paired nut enclosed within a spiny husk. The flowers are catkins. The nuts are commonly eaten roasted or candied; the latter are often sold under the
French name
marrons glacés.
The
American chestnut, formerly one of the dominant trees of the eastern
United States, has been almost wiped out by
chestnut blight; it was an important economic resource not only for the nuts which were sold across
North America, even by streetside vendors, but also for timber and
tannin.
The American chinkapins are also very susceptible to chestnut blight. The European and west Asian
Sweet chestnut is slightly susceptible, but less so than the American, and the east Asian species are resistant. These resistant species, particularly
C. crenata and
C. mollissima but also
C. seguinii and
C. henryi, have been used in breeding programs in the US to create
hybrids with the American chestnut that are also disease resistant.
The name chestnut is also commonly applied to several species in the unrelated genus Aesculus (family Sapindaceae), usually in compound form 'horse-chestnut', 'horse chestnut' or 'horsechestnut'. The nuts of this genus are inedible, 'only fit for horses', hence the name.
Chestnut is also used to describe a certain color of coat in horses.
