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Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa)
<tr><th bgcolor=lightgreen>Scientific classification
<tr><td>
<tr><td>Kingdom:<td>Plantae
<tr><td>Division:<td>Magnoliophyta
<tr><td>Class:<td>Magnoliopsida
<tr><td>Order:<td>Fagales
<tr><td>Family:<td>Fagaceae
<tr><td>Genus:<td>Castanea
</table>
<tr><th bgcolor=lightgreen>Species
<tr><td>
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
</table>
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.
de:Esskastanie
eo:Kaŝtanujo
fr:Châtaignier
nl:Kastanje
ja:クリ
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