Chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus Castanea, in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Description
Bark of C. sativa (sweet chestnut)
Chestnut trees are of moderate growth rate (for the Chinese chestnut) to fast growth rate (for American and European species). Their mature heights vary from the tallest, C. sativa that can reach 35–36 metres (115–118 feet), and C. dentata that can reach around 30 metres (100 feet), to the smallest species of chinkapins, often shrubby, Between these extremes are found the Japanese chestnut tree (C. crenata) at 10 m average; followed by the Chinese chestnut tree (C. mollissima) at about 15 m.
The Chinese and more so the Japanese chestnut trees are both often multistemmed and wide-spreading, while C. sativa and C. dentata tend to grow very erect when planted among others, with little tapering of their columnar trunks, which are firmly set and massive. When standing on their own, they spread on the sides and develop broad, rounded, dense crowns at maturity. The foliage of the European and American species has striking yellow autumn colour.
Chestnut bark is smooth when young, of a vinous maroon or red-brown colour for the American chestnut, grey for the sweet chestnut. With age, the bark becomes grey-brown and darker, thick, and deeply furrowed; the furrows run longitudinally, and tend to twist around the trunk as the tree ages, sometimes reminiscent of a large cable with twisted strands.
C. sativa male catkins (pale buff) and female catkins (green, spiny, partly hidden by leaves)
The leaves are simple, ovate or lanceolate, 10–32 cm long, and 4–10 cm wide, with sharply pointed, widely spaced teeth, with shallow rounded sinuates between.
The flowers follow the leaves, appearing in late spring or early summer or into July. They are arranged in long catkins of two kinds, with both kinds...
