Castanea henryi

Castanea henryi, the Henry's chestnut, is a tree in the family Fagaceae.

Description

Tree up to 30 m tall, with leaves with a 1-2.5 cm petiole, and an oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate blade, 10-23 cm, with the underside covered with yellowish glands arranged along the long veined when young, glabrous, rounded to broadly cuneate based, with serrated margins of 2-4mm teeth. Male inflorescences in catkins of 5-16 cm and the female ones reduced to 1-3 per dome. Fruits 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, including the slightly pubescent spiny bracts. A single globose-ovoid achene of 1.5-2 cm, longer than wide per fruit.

Habitat and distribution

It grows in China, in the mixed forests of the mountain slopes, from 100 to 1800 m altitude. It flowers in May-July and bears fruit in September-October.

Taxonomy

Castanea henryi was first described by Sidney Alfred Skan as Castanopsis henryi and later transferred to the genus Castanea by Alfred Rehder & Ernest Henry Wilson and published in Plantae Wilsonianae, an enumeration of the woody plants collected in Western China for the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University during the years 1907, 1908 and 1910 by E.H. Wilson edited by Charles Sprague Sargent..., 3(2), p. 196–197 in 1916

Etymology

• Castanea: generic name derived from the Greek χετανον And then the Latin castăněa, -ae, name of chestnut and chestnut (Virgilio, Bucolicas,1, 82), the latter also called castanea nux (Virgilio, Bucolicas, 2, 52), the walnut of the chestnut. It could also derive from Castanaea, ae or Castana, ae, city of Asia Minor or, according to others, of the Armenian name of this tree.

• henryi: epithet dedicated to Aimé Constant Fidèle Henry who collects it in China.

Sinonimia

• Castanopsis henryi Skan
• Castanea henryi var. omeiensis W.P.Fang
• Castanea sativa var. acuminatissima Seem.
• Castanea fargesii Dode
• Castanea vilmoriniana Dode