Chestnut

:This article is about the chestnut plant in the genus Castanea. The name horse-chestnut is commonly applied to several species in the unrelated genus Aesculus (family Sapindaceae). Also unrelated is the Chestnut oak (Quercus montana). Chestnut is also used as an adjective to describe a certain colour of coat in horses that resembles the colour of the chestnut nut.

Related Topics:
Aesculus - Sapindaceae - Chestnut oak - Horse

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C. alnifolia - Bush Chinkapin*

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C. crenata - Japanese Chestnut

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C. dentata - American Chestnut

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C. henryi - Henry's Chestnut

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C. mollissima - Chinese Chestnut

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C. ozarkensis - Ozark Chinkapin

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C. pumila - Alleghany Chinkapin

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C. sativa - Sweet Chestnut

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C. seguinii - Seguin's Chestnut

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* 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, native to warm temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the nuts produced by these trees. Most are large trees to 20-40 m tall, but some species (the chinkapins) are smaller, often shrubby. All are deciduous.

Related Topics:
Tree - Shrub - Beech - Fagaceae - Northern Hemisphere - Nuts - Deciduous

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The leaves are simple, ovate or lanceolate, 10-30 cm long and 4-10 cm broad, with sharply pointed, widely-spaced teeth, with shallow rounded sinuses between. The flowers are catkins, produced in mid summer. The fruit is a spiny cupule 5-11 cm diameter, containing 2-7 nuts.

Related Topics:
Leaves - Flower - Catkin - Fruit - Cupule - Nuts

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The American Chestnut, formerly one of the dominant trees of the eastern United States, has been almost wiped out by a fungal disease, chestnut blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. The American chinkapins are also very susceptible to chestnut blight. The European and west Asian Sweet Chestnut is susceptible, but less so than the American, and the east Asian species are resistant. These resistant species, particularly Japanese Chestnut and Chinese Chestnut but also Seguin's Chestnut and Henry's Chestnut, have been used in breeding programs in the US to create hybrids with the American chestnut that are also disease resistant.

Related Topics:
American Chestnut - United States - Fungal - Chestnut blight - Europe - Asia - Sweet Chestnut - Japanese Chestnut - Chinese Chestnut - Seguin's Chestnut - Henry's Chestnut - Hybrid

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