Castanopsis hystrix seed

LATIN NAME: Castanopsis hystrix

COMMON NAME: Spiny Chinkapin

The spiny chinkapin is a handsome, upright, tall, evergreen tree of the warm forests, and its fine, oval or lance-shaped, glossy leaves and its fine, upright, catkin-like heads of the small flowers, followed by the small, round, spiny, brown cups of the single, sweet, edible nut, have made it a treasured and fine tree of the region. It grows as an upright, tall, evergreen tree, reaching up to twenty-five metres or so, with the upright, tapering trunk bearing the alternate, oval or lance-shaped, pointed, glossy, dark-green leaves and, through the spring, the fine, upright, catkin-like heads of the small, greenish flowers, followed by the small, round, spiny, brown, cup-like husks of the single, glossy, brown, sweet, edible nut. It is a species of the flowering tree in the beech family, and it is native to the warm forests of the south and the south-eastern Asia, while it is prized for its fine, sweet nuts and its fine timber, and it is known as the spiny chinkapin.

In the beech family it is the spiny-cupped chestnut of the warm forests, a tree whose sweet nuts the forest animals and the forest people have both long treasured.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The spiny chinkapin is a name that appears across the food-science papers of the warm forests, where the small, glossy, brown nuts are studied for their fine nutrition as a wholesome food of the region. The forest botanists have mapped its place in the beech family and the warm forest flora, and the wildlife ecologists have watched the squirrels, the birds and the forest animals come to the spiny cups for the sweet nuts. The foresters have studied the straight, useful timber, and the growers of the warm-region trees keep the species in their catalogues for the glossy crown and the nut harvest.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm garden, the spiny chinkapin is the glossy tree that feeds the wildlife. Its upright, catkin-like flowers feed the bees, its spiny cups of the sweet nuts feed the squirrels and the birds, and the evergreen crown gives the garden shade and shelter through the year. The nuts are gathered and enjoyed as a fine food of the region, and the timber serves the building of the region. It grows well in the rich, acid, well-drained ground of the sheltered spot. Glossy, nut-bearing and generous.

These nuts lose their freshness quickly, so sow them straight away, at a shallow depth in pots of rich, acid, free-draining soil, keep the pots in a sheltered, half-shaded spot and never let the soil dry out, and the first shoots will come up steadily.