Winterthur Garden Blog

Horticulturist Jim Pirhalla writes about one of our lesser known trees:

One of the definitions of chestnut I have found is “a stale joke”.   Another is “something, as a story, lacking freshness or originality”.  Perhaps I should put down the dictionary before it’s too late.  The chestnut that I would like to refer to in this writing is under the definition of “a tree”.

Chinese chestnut trees (Castanea mollissima), although there are none growing in the Winterthur garden itself, are found scattered amongst the estate. One location is near the old Winterthur creamery by the dairy barns, another by the golf barn along Chandler Road as well as a couple others located on the Biederman golf course.

In late summer the fruit of the Chinese chestnut tree, which is edible to humans, begins to drop. The nuts themselves are enclosed in a spinney or prickly pod-like structure that splits open when ripe. Sometimes the nuts will drop from this casing before the pod falls. Other times the pod falls with the nuts still enclosed. If one wishes to open a pod that contains a chestnut or two, be sure to wear some thick leather gloves for the spines are very fine and also very sharp! The nut of the Chinese chestnut is very tasty when roasted but I have found that of the ones that I have personally collected, about 50% of them are either rotten or have a worm in them. I suppose that cultivated trees are probably sprayed with something to prevent these things from happening. Also, since squirrels, deer and other wildlife also enjoy the taste of these nuts there tends not to be many left for a person to find on the ground especially when, as in the case here at Winterthur, you’re only dealing with a small number of trees from which to harvest.

Our native chestnut (C. dentata), as you probably know, was decimated by the Chestnut blight in the early part of the 20^th century. An estimated three billion trees were lost due to this disease. The American chestnut was a dominate tree species in it’s time and supplied a vast number of wildlife species such as deer, turkey, bear and the extinct passenger pigeon with a food source. It was also collected for human consumption not only by Native Americans but by early colonists, settlers and immigrants. Since the American chestnut’s demise, crosses of what remains of the species have been made with the Chinese chestnut and the Japanese chestnut (C. crenata). Progress is being made to produce a tree that is not only resistant to the blight but one that has the height and habit of our native chestnut.

While I’m on the subject of chestnut trees, the common horsechestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), which is a Native of southeast Europe, produces large fruit but unfortunately it is not suitable for human consumption.

One last comment that I would like to make of the Chinese chestnut is that if you are considering planting one on your property be aware that when in bloom, the fragrance of the flower is considered by most to be unpleasant.

So like the song goes, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…