Chestnut
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C. alnifolia - 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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- This article is about the chestnut plant in the Castanea genus. The name horse chestnut is commonly applied to several species in the unrelated genus Aesculus (family Sapindaceae). Chestnut is also used to describe a certain color of coat in horses that resembles the color of the chestnut nut.
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 30-40 m 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.