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CHESTNUT
(Castanea dentata)
American chestnut, sweet chestnut
Description:
Tree up to 100 ft., trunk width 6-8 ft. broad. Smooth gray bark
develops brown spiral ridges. Leaves, alternate, glossy, leathery
,oblong lanceolate, tapering to point at each end, margins have
coarse teeth. Creamy yellow flowers appear, after leaves, in 6-8
in. long catkins, followed by autumn fruit husks, a green prickly
or spiny bur containing 1-3 glossy brown nuts. Cultivated for
over 3,000 years.
EDIBLE-MEDICINAL:
Nuts can be roasted, boiled, ground into nutritious flour. Wood
for timber, posts and rails. Shampoo from leaves and nut skins,
give golden highlights to hair. Leaves used as a substitute for
witch hazel for fevers, chills, tonic.
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