Chestnuts are deciduous trees with furrowed bark and scaly buds. Terminal buds are absent. Leaves are alternate and toothed with parallel veins. Flowers are monoecious and borne in catkins. Fruit is a nut in a prickly bur.
Castanea dentata – American Chestnut
Castanea mollissima – Chinese Chestnut
American Chestnut–Castanea dentata
The chestnut was one of the most important trees in Ohio. It was entirely confined to the eastern portion of the state from Erie, southward to Franklin and Clermont counties. About the beginning of this century, it fell victim to chestnut blight, one of the most disastrous tree diseases. This canker disease was imported from Asia and has spread rapidly throughout New England and the Appalachian region. Occasionally, live sprouts may be found, but these usually canker and die back to the soil line when the trunk reaches 6 inches in diameter.
|
|
|
||
| American Chestnut |
The long, pointed leaves have coarse teeth, each carrying a slender spine or bristle tip and are quite distinctive. Leaves are simple, alternate, and average 41/4—91/2 inches (11—24 cm) long. Leaves are glabrous and two to three times as long as wide. Foliage is dark green in color. The leaf base is acute, or narrowed, toward the base. Its foliage makes it easy to distinguished it from the Chinese and European chestnuts.
The showy male flowers are long, slender, whitish catkins opening in midsummer. The fruit is a prickly bur which opens at the first frost, or earlier, and drops two to three shiny, brown, sweet, edible nuts. These were harvested and sold earlier in this century.
Terminal buds are absent. Overwintering buds are 1/8—1/4 inch (3—6 mm) long and ovoid in shape. Twigs and buds are brown and glabrous. Bark becomes broken into light gray, broad, flat ridges which often have a tendency toward a spiral course around the trunk.
 |
| Chinese Chestnut |
The wood is light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, and very durable in contact with the soil. These properties make the wood particularly valuable for posts, poles, and crossties as well as for light building construction. The wood is rich in tannin. The tree's wonderful sprouting ability had enabled it to reproduce prolifically after repeated cutting for railroad ties, poles, and other products.
Chinese Chestnut – Castanea mollissima
Asiatic chestnuts from China and Japan have been introduced in recent years for reforestation and nut-culture purposes. Various hybrids of the Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima) have been developed with some resistance to chestnut blight but are not immune. Resistant selections include ‘Jobson,' ‘Carr,' ‘Abundance,' ‘Stoke,' ‘Reliable,' and ‘Yankee.'
The leaves of the Chinese chestnut are smaller than the native chestnut. Leaves are hairy beneath and 31/4—6 inches (81/2—15 cm) long. The leaf base is more rounded and not as acute as the American chestnut. Leaf margins are serrate with bristle-like teeth.
Terminal buds are absent. Overwintering buds are 1/8—1/4 inch (3—6 mm) long and ovoid in shape. Twigs and buds are brown and pubescent. Mature bark is grayish-brown and strongly furrowed.
The nuts are sweet and somewhat larger than the native chestnut but not as flavorful. At present, the form and type are inferior for lumber. The tree is branched lower to the ground and is smaller than the American chestnut. The Chinese chestnut rarely reaches 50 feet.