Can you eat chestnuts off the tree? Chestnuts are part of a group consisting of about nine species of trees and shrubs in the Fagaceae family. Although the shell is very difficult to remove, chestnuts are edible.
However, it is rare to eat them raw and can even be dangerous for certain people. How can you tell if chestnuts are edible? Another easy way to tell them apart is to look at the nut itself.
Both are brown with a light-colored spot on them. However, edible chestnuts always have a tassel or point on the nut—something that your finger can feel as a point. The toxic chestnut has no point—it is smooth and roundish all over. Are there poisonous chestnuts?
One thing we need to understand is that chestnuts are sweet and they are edible but conkers or horse chestnuts are poisonous, and they are not for eating purposes.
Horse chestnuts may look very desirable to eat but it is toxic, and it can even cause paralysis. How many types of chestnuts are there? How do you tell the difference between oak and chestnuts? A sure-fire method for telling chestnut and oak apart is to look for rays — straight bands of tissue — running perpendicular to the growth rings.
Oak has broad bands, while chestnut has none. Looking at the end grain will reveal the rays. Is chestnut a good wood? Chestnut wood was widely used because it was abundant, has good wood-working properties and is naturally resistant to insects and fungi.
Chestnut bark was also used as a source of tannin and the nuts were collected for food. Is wormy chestnut expensive? Maybe roasted on an open fire? Be careful! What you think are chestnuts are most likely Horse-chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum.
Despite having beautiful spring flowers, these trees have horrible tasting nuts, toxic to humans due to a toxin called aesculin. This toxin is found in the leaves, flowers and twigs of the Horse-Chestnut. The main difference is that the Horse-chestnut has a palmately compound leaf and a spiky armor like husk around the nut, whereas the Chestnut has a simple serrated leaf with a spiky sea urchin like husk around the nut.
Unfortunately, the most delicious chestnut of all, the American Chestnuts Castanea dentata , were largely wiped out by a fungal blight, although two prominent American chestnuts remain along Leif Erickson Trail in Portland and in Fort Vancouver in Vancouver.
Identified in winter by: the bark which has fissures that spiral upwards around the tree. About 16—28 cm long, 5—9 cm wide and oblong with a pointed tip and a serrated or toothed edge. The leaves are quite glossy and there are about 20 pairs of prominent parallel veins.
Long, yellow catkins of mostly male flowers, with female flowers at the base. Sweet chestnut is monoecious, meaning both male and female flowers are found on the same tree. After pollination by insects, female flowers develop into shiny, red-brown fruits wrapped in a green, spiky case.
The trees begin to bear fruit when they are around 25 years old. Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum , which has similar nuts, but those of the sweet chestnut are smaller and found in clusters.
It's an A-Z tree guide in your pocket. Sweet chestnut is native to southern Europe, western Asia and North Africa. The story of how sweet chestnut trees came to be in Britain is unclear. It may be that sweet chestnut trees are a far more recent introduction.
Today can be found commonly throughout the UK in woods and copses, especially in parts of southern England where it is still managed to form large areas of coppice. The flowers provide an important source of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects, while red squirrels eat the nuts. A large number of micro-moths feed on the leaves and nuts. There is very little mythology surrounding the sweet chestnut in the UK, probably because it was introduced.
However, the ancient Greeks dedicated the sweet chestnut to Zeus and its botanical name Castanea comes from Castonis, a Town in Thessaly in Greece where the tree was grown for its nuts. It is said to be between 2, and 4, years old. Sweet chestnut timber is similar to oak but is more lightweight and easier to work.
It has a straight grain when young, but this spirals in older trees. It can be used for carpentry, joinery and furniture.
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