"Real" Chestnut Tree. What to do with it?

Hi all, I have to explain what I mean by a "real" chestnut tree. Apparently, if one were to sing the old Christmas song about roasting chestnuts on an open fire, they would not be talking about the now common Horse Chestnut tree. If you look at the pictures that I have included, I show a chestnut out of the shell, one in the shell still, and the tree that I collected yesterday. According to my father-in-law, these are the "real" chestnuts, and as far as he knows, there are not many left in US today. In fact, the one I collected the seeds from is the only one he has seen in his life (and at 69 years old, that tells me its a little more rare than if a 20 year old had said the same statement). The tree was growing about 30 feet from the big tree (probably about 45 feet high or so) and looks like it has been mowed over quite a bit; but at the same time, I was thinking that this might make it more suitable as a bonsai than to just let grow. Any opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated.


The seeds from the big chestnut tree.




I put the seeds in the container to give a sense of proportion. The trunk has a diameter of about one and a half inches.


Sorry that the trunk is so blurry in the pics. And I do plan to put it in a nursery pot sometime this weekend and put it outside. I just don't want to move it too much and end up killing it.

I hate to break it to you, but your father-in-law gave you some incorrect info. By the compound leaf and that green fruit this appears to be some kind of hickory. The chestnuts that roast over that open fire, American or Chinese, are totally different animals. Instead of that smooth husk theirs is spiney, so spiney you can hardly handle it.

For a fascinating story check out www.acf.org

Russell

hi,
Russel is spot on - this is an edible chestnut, roasted by the fire etc


this is the horse chestnut - not roasted but used for the game of conkers


the leaf on this one certainly looks like Hickory



Has the seedling collected definitely come from the big tree, what leaves does the big tree have, if it is the same they are potentially all hickories of one description or another.

either way is is a nice piece of wild material and will be quite a challenge with the bigger elongate leaves, but a tree to treasure with the history attached to it.

good luck, Marcus

I'm might be totally off base here, but I don't think those nuts are from the same kind of tree. The nut almost looks like a buckeye to me, or at least not like any hickory nut I've every seen or could find on a google image search.

marcus watts wrote:
Has the seedling collected definitely come from the big tree, what leaves does the big tree have, if it is the same they are potentially all hickories of one description or another.

either way is is a nice piece of wild material and will be quite a challenge with the bigger elongate leaves, but a tree to treasure with the history attached to it.

good luck, Marcus

Yes, it is defiinitely from the larger tree as it has the same leaves on it. I believe I will plant it in the ground tomorrow and let it go for a couple of years to see what happens with it. The next time I am in the area that I collected the tree from, I will try to take a picture of the big tree to post here also. Thanks for everyone's comments.

The "nut" (out of the husk) doesn't look like Carya, which has a hard, woody shell. On the other hand the leaf of that seedling doesn't look like Aesculus.

Either way it's not Castanea.

Please take some pictures of the foliage too!