Castanea sativa Mill.
C. vulgaris Lam., nom illeg., C. vesca Gaertner, nom illeg.
Eng.: Sweet chestnut. Spa.: Castaño común. Fre.: Châtaignier. Ara.: Bellut el malek, qasthal, questtla, costal. Tam.: Anelatt, tlaseft, legestel.
Deciduous tree, monoecious, up to 20-30 m in height, rounded in shape. Trunk straight, that can reach 1 m or even wider in diameter, especially in cultivated specimens, with a shorter and thicker trunk. Bark greyish-brown, very dark and longitudinally fissured in older specimens. Young branches and trunks with greenish bark, almost smooth. Branchlets of the current year green-reddish. Leaves opposite, large (10-25 × 4-8 cm), lanceolate, with coarsely serrated edge, somewhat coriaceous, dark green on the upper side and slightly lighter on the underside. Flowers grouped into long spikes, borne on the leaf axils. Male flowers borne almost throughout the entire spike, forming clusters borne on the axil of an ovate bract. Female flowers, usually 3 at the base of the spike, grouped on a common involucre, ovoid, 4 cm in diameter in cultivated trees, and much smaller in the wild. Fruit or achene is the chestnut. Seed with a hardened crust, reddish-brown, shiny and glabrous outside and whitish-velvety inside. Chestnuts are grouped 1-3 inside a capsule with bristling long spines, which opens into 2-4 valves.
Flowering:
May to June.
Fruiting:
September to November.
Habitat:
Forests and riverbanks on siliceous soils, in subhumid to hyperhumid bioclimate, on thermomediterranean to supramediterranean floors.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. Widely cultivated since ancient times, in many cases it is nowadays very difficult to establish which trees are spontaneous, subspontaneous or cultivated. Wild trees give very small fruits, but because they are well adapted to the terrain they are used as rootstocks for more productive cultivated forms (this is also done with Olea europaea var. sylvestris to obtain good olive trees). Fossil pollen samples found in the Iberian Peninsula rectify the hypothesis that the species is native to the western Mediterranean countries. Currently the chestnut is considered indigenous to northern Morocco, at least in the Rif (Jebel Mahfoura and Laou River), in NE Algeria (in the typical localities of eastern Kabylia, such as the Edough Massif) and in NW Tunisia, Aïn Draham (Krumiria) where wild chestnuts grow among oak forests of Quercus canariensis.
Conservation status:
A common and widely distributed species, not considered threatened. Currently, it has not been assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, in North Africa it is a rare and highly localised species. In Morocco it is included in its List of native species that need authorization for commercial use (Law 29-2005 and Decree 2-12-484 of 21-May-2015). In Tunisia it is included in its List of native species that are rare and threatened with extinction (Order of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, 19-July-2006).
