I wrote a ramble about 'How to Cook Perfect Roast Chestnuts' a couple of weeks back, and it has proved to be somewhat of a hit. It appears that I am not alone in enjoying the many and various pleasures of that particular nut. Cooked correctly and washed down with a glass of Baileys there is nothing quite like a roast chestnut.

So, to follow up, today I thought I would regale you with some fascinating facts about the source of that fun. The different types of chestnut tree.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Chestnut Trees.

"Chestnuts (Castanea), including the chinkapins, are a genus of eight or nine species of trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the nuts produced by these trees. Most are tall trees to 30-40 m tall, but some species (the chinkapins) are shrubby. All are deciduous.

Castanea species are trees and shrubs with simple, ovate or lanceolate leaves with sharply-pointed, widely-spaced teeth, with rounded sinuses between. The fruit is a paired nut enclosed within a spiny husk. The flowers are catkins. The nuts are commonly eaten roasted or candied; the latter are often sold under the French name marrons glacés.

Chestnuts

The American chestnut, formerly one of the dominant trees of the eastern United States, has been almost wiped out by chestnut blight; it was an important economic resource not only for the nuts which were sold across North America, even by streetside vendors, but also for timber and tannin.

The American chinkapins are also very susceptible to chestnut blight. The European and west Asian Sweet chestnut is slightly susceptible, but less so than the American, and the east Asian species are resistant. These resistant species, particularly C. crenata and C. mollissima but also C. seguinii and C. henryi, have been used in breeding programs in the US to create hybrids with the American chestnut that are also disease resistant.