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| Photo
by Renee Brecht |
Britton and Brown. See
credits below.** |
| Botanical name: |
Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh. |
| Common
name: |
American chestnut |
| Group: |
dicot |
| Family: |
Fagaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
tree |
| Duration: |
perennial |
| Origin: |
native |
| Plant
height: |
100-150' but often now only to 20', as most mature trees were lost to blight |
| Foliage: |
large, alternate, simple, widely spaced dentate leaves; twigs are hairless |
| Flowers: |
monoecious; green to white male flowers in catkins; females near twig near base of twig. Fruit is large, round, spiny husk |
| Flowering/fruiting time: |
late spring/early summer. |
| Range
in
New Jersey: |
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| Heritage ranking if any: |
n/a |
| Distribution: |
 |
| Misc.: |
During the 1900s, chestnut blight struck most of the American chestnuts and few survived.
Most of what is seen now is planted Chinese Chestnut, which is blight resistant.
The
United States National Arboretum has been working to backcross American
chestnut with the Chinese strain to create a disease resistant strain
with American characteristics.
For more information, visit the American Chestnut Foundation
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Sources
**USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 3: 304. |
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