Sweet chestnut

Castanea sativa

Family · Fagaceae · Harmless

Edible

The tree of the chestnut groves of Trás-os-Montes and Beira, planted two thousand years ago and still yielding. Recognised by its long toothed leaf and the spiny burs on the ground in November.

Where it grows

Uplands · Oak woods

Also known as

chestnut, European chestnut

In flower

In fruit

How to tell it

A long narrow leaf with big pointed teeth all along the margin, like a saw. Yellow catkin cords in summer, strongly scented. A long-spined bur holding two or three nuts.

What it is confused with

Horse chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum

Confusion that poisons

A confusion of names and fruit, and this one matters. Horse chestnut has a palmate leaf of five to seven leaflets and a bur with short thick spines holding one round nut, which is toxic. The true chestnut has a simple toothed leaf.

What it is for

The chestnut was the bread of the sierras before the potato, and remains a cash crop in the northeast. Roasted, boiled, in soup and as flour.

Traditionally used as food. This is not permission to eat it.

Sources

Flora-On