Castanea mollissima Blume

Chinese Chestnut

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Chinese Chestnut is an introduced deciduous tree in the Beech family (Fagaceae). It is native to China and Korea, and can be found throughout Alabama. Chinese Chestnut occurs around old home sites, on fence rows, in pastures, and in abandoned orchards and wildlife plantings. Chinese Chestnut is a multi-trunked small tree or small rounded tree branching from low on the trunk. Trees can reach a height and spread of 40 to 60 feet. Bark is greyish and furrowed. Young twigs have spreading hairs. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, oblong to elliptic in outline, coarsely serrate, and densely pubescent on the lower surface. The leaves are dark green and shiny above and whitish below. The deciduous leaves turn yellow then brown in the autumn. Male flowers are produced in dense, drooping, whitish catkins. Female flowers are produced at the base of some of the catkins. The odor of the flowers is offensive to some people. The fruit is an edible brown nut. A spiny involucre encloses 2-3 nuts. Chinese Chestnut is fairly resistant to Chestnut Blight caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica. It was hybridized with our American Chestnut (Castanea dentata (Marshall) Borkhausen) in hopes of conveying disease resistance to that species. Chinese Chestnut is often cultivated for its edible nuts and planted as a food source for wildlife.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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