All the botanical characteristics of the chestnut
The European chestnut tree is a very long-lived plant, which can reach the 1000 years of age as the chestnut called of the centovalli on Mount Etna, which the legend wants to protect from the hurricane Queen Joan of Aragon and her following: It is 53 metres in circumference and is given an age of about 4000 years).
The adult tree has a wide and roundish foliage, is 15-20 m high on average, but can reach up to 30-35 m. and a circumference of 6-8 m. The stem, stocky and erect, has ramifications which depart at modest heights. The bark in the young branches is smooth, of variable colour from the pale grey to the ochre. The lenticels have form of round and whitish pustules. The leaves are leathery, elliptical-lanceolate, with a generally serrated margin and a sharp apex.
The upper page is bright green, the lower one is lighter. The average length of the leaves is 12-20 cm, the width varies from 3 to 6 cm. The release of the leaves takes place in April/May. The buds are smooth, short and stubby, usually reddish brown in colour. The bud hatching takes place between mid-March and mid-April, depending on the areas and varieties. As far as the root system is concerned, this is at first a taproot, then expanded and much ramified, but superficial.
Like many other forest species, chestnut trees also have mycorrhiza (the mycelium of a fungus lives in symbiosis with the roots or rhizomes of an arboreal or herbaceous plant, which receives from the fungus water and salts absorbed by the soil, yielding in its turn the carbohydrates processed by it).
The European chestnut tree is a monoecious species with unisexual flowers. The male flowers are united in glomeruli, placed on 10-30 cm long catkins, with varying posture from the pendulum to the erect. The female inflorescences are at the base of the catkins located at the axil of the upper leaves. Each female inflorescence usually contains 3 flowers, protected by an involucre, called cupula, from which emerge the styles. The cupula will evolve into a hedgehog, while the flowers, once attached, will turn into chestnuts, botanically classified as achenes. Rarely do all the flowers of a cupula attach, so the number of fruits contained in a hedgehog usually varies from 1 to 3, depending on the cultivar and the seasonal trend.
There are therefore also abortive fruits, called shells or voids. Each fruit is covered by a smooth and leathery pericarp, whose colour varies from light brown to dark brown. Inside the fruit, protected by a pink film (episperma), there is the edible part: the seed. Within the same fruit can accommodate also 2-3 seeds, each enclosed in its own episperm. The fruits, weighing from 8 to 20 gr, can be distinguished in: brown, usually bigger with convex faces; chestnuts usually with smaller size, sweeter. They are eaten fresh or dry, raw, boiled, roasted, and are reduced to flour, with which they prepare dishes and sweets.
Chestnuts, whose production starts around the fourth year and at the tenth can give 20 kg per year, per hectare on average can produce one tonne up to a maximum of two. Chestnuts have a high nutritional value, a high content of starches and a decent caloric value.
The Wood of Chestnut
The wood of the wild chestnut, compact and resistant, is used for the paleria but is also suitable as firewood and for charcoal. The wood and bark are rich in tannin, which, extracted with water from the sawdust, was once very used as a tanning product for the skins.
Azienda Agricola Malerba
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83048 Montella (AV)
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