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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] RE: chestnuts/oaks

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] RE: chestnuts/oaks
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 12:05:17 -0500

At 03:39 PM 6/17/2004 +0000, you wrote:
Silly question, compared to recent posts on topic:
I've heard of a chinquapin oak, but not chestnut. Was I mis-informed, or are there 2 things? Does the oak have a nut or timber use?

Tanis,
Chinkapin oak is Q.muehlenbergii, a member of the white oak group. Small acorns with relatively high oil content, for the white oaks. Timber use would be similar to that of white oak.

Chinkapin/chinquapin is (mostly) Castanea pumila, though there are some folks who break out some different species, such as C.ozarkensis - whether or not they're actually separate species, I don't know.
The chinkapin is a shrubby to small tree type chestnut that produces a small bur with a single small nut per bur, whereas the chestnuts typically produce multiple nuts per bur. A fellow KNGA member was opining, this spring, that while most of the preservation and recovery efforts have been focused on the American chestnut, that somebody ought to be looking at preserving the chinkapin, as it is/was very important as a wildlife food source.
I've grafted a couple of chinkapin selections this year, one of which presumably has a Chinese chestnut as one grandparent since it has a large nut, and have a couple of native trees here on the farm that I'm still trying to get a positive ID on - I don't know if they're American chestnuts or chinkapins.

Lucky





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