A NEW CHINQUAPIN 



By George B. Sudworth.. 



Dendrologist, United States Forest Service 



THE true chestnuts, species of the genus Castanea, grow 

 naturally in the temperate portions of eastern North 

 America, middle and southern Europe, northern Africa, 

 western Asia, central and northern China, and Japan. 

 About four distinct species are now known to occur in 

 all these regions. The common chestnut-tree of Europe, 

 Castanea castanea, was the first tree of the genus that 

 became known to science, and is usually referred to in 

 the books a Castanea sativa, C. vulgaris, and C. vesca, 

 all of which are, however, antedated by the oldest name, 

 Castanea castanea. The chestnut-tree of China, a large 



tree species, the common chestnut {Castanea dentata), 

 is sometimes loo feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diameter, 

 its range being roughly from Ontario to southern Michi- 

 gan and southward to Delaware, southern Indiana and 

 Illinois, and thence in the mountain sections to Georgia, 

 and to western Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. The 

 smaller tree species {Castanea pumila), commonly called 

 Chinquapin, is 25 to occasionally 40 feet high and 2 to 

 sometimes 3 feet in diameter. It is distributed from 

 New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania to Florida and 

 westward to Oklahoma and eastern Texas. The fourth 



CASTANEA PUMILA ASHEI SUDWORTH 



A new variety of chinquapin Staminate (male) flowering branch (left) ; pistillate (female) flowers (center) ; nut and fruiting 



branch (left). Illustration about one-third natural size. 



tree, and of Japan, a small or medium-sized tree, are 

 variously considered distinct species or varieties of the 

 European chestnut, the Chines'e tree being known tech- 

 nically as Castanea bungeana, and the Japanese tree as 

 Castanea castanea pubinervis. So little is now known of 

 these trees, at least of the Chinese Chestnut, that a satis- 

 factory conclusion has not yet been reached regarding 

 their botanical status. 



The second, third, and fourth species of chestnut now 

 known are natives of eastern North America, two being 

 trees, and the fourth being a shrub. The larger of the 



species, ithe Dwarf Chinquapin {Castanea alnifolia), 

 growing from North Carolina to Georgia, is a low shrub 

 which forms thickets by running roots. An arborescent 

 variety of this shrub, recently described as Castanea alni- 

 folia floridana Sargent, and locally called Chinquapin, 

 is more often a shrub, but in Florida it sometimes becomes 

 a tree 30 or 40 feet high and 8 to 12 inches in diameter, 

 its general range being in North Carolina, Georgia, Ala- 

 bama, Florida and Louisiana. 



In the coastal plain of southeastern United States occurs 

 another arborescent chinquapin that appears to be differ- 



