Castanea pumila (L.) Mill.

Allegheny Chinquapin; Common Chinquapin

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Allegheny Chinquapin is a native deciduous shrub or small tree in the Beech family (Fagaceae). It is native to all of Alabama. Allegheny Chinquapin can be found in pine forests, hardwood forests, sandhills, and rocky woods. It grows from 6-50 feet in height. Plants are sometimes rhizomatous and form small thickets. Twigs are green in color and pubescent. The bark on the trunk and older stems is gray to brownish-red in color and smooth to fissured. The wood is heavy and rot resistant, but trees are generally too small and local for widespread use. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, elliptic to oblanceolate in outline, and have sharply toothed margins. The leaves are pubescent below with stellate or wooly white or tan hairs, and turn yellow before dropping in the autumn. Flowers are produced in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are produced in spikes and are either entirely staminate or with a few pistillate flowers toward the base. Male flowers have no petals and 12-18 stamens. The pistillate flowers are singular and enclosed in a spiny cupule. The fruit is a small, edible, shiny black nut surrounded by the spiny cupule which splits to release it. Allegheny Chinquapin is often infected by chestnut blight, caused by the introduced fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) M. E. Barr. Plants are top killed by the fungus but resprout from the base. Allegheny Chinquapin nuts are eaten by a variety of wildlife.—A. Diamond

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Native G5 (Global Rank)

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