Sweet chestnut
Castanea sativa · Fagaceae · 유럽밤나무
How to spot it
Long leaves with coarse teeth and parallel side veins, long green-yellow catkins, and prickly burs.
Look
- Leaves
- Long lance-shaped leaves with coarse teeth and parallel side veins.
- Flowers
- Green-yellow flowers form long dense catkins on the current year's shoots.
- Fruit
- Edible nuts are held inside a prickly protective bur.
- Bark
- Bark has deep vertical furrows forming a net-like pattern.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Western Asia and southeastern Europe.
- Ecology
- Grows in mountain woods and tolerates drought and coastal exposure. Flowers attract bees; nuts feed birds and other wildlife.