Bitter chestnut, White rock chestnut
Castanopsis sclerophylla

Family: Fagaceae

What it is like

A tree. The branches and leaf blades are smooth. The young shoots are reddish brown and slightly angular. The leaf stalk is 1.5-2.5 cm long. The leaf blade is oblong and 7-15 cm long. It is leathery. It turns silvery grey on the upper surface with age. The base is rounded or wedge shaped and often unequal. The leaf blade can have irregular edges in the top section. They taper to the tip and it can be cup shaped. There are 10-15 side veins on each side of the midrib. The female flower arrangement is about 15 cm long. The cups are 1.2-1.5 cm across. They almost entirely enclose the nut. The outside is brownish and hairy. The are scale like bracts. They are 3-4 angled. There is usually one nut per cup but there can be 3. These are 1-1.4 cm across. They are hairy and the tip is sharp.

There are about 120 Castanopsis species. Many have edible nuts.

Where it is found

They grow in broad leafed forest between 200-1000 m altitude in China.

Countries/locations it is found in

Asia, China (country/location of origin)

How it is used for food

The nuts are used for food. Starch is extracted from them. This is used to prepare pudding.

Edible parts

Nuts, seeds

How it is grown

Its other names

Local names

Ku zhu

Synonyms

Lithocarpus chinensis (Abel) A.Camus; Quercus chinensis Abel; Quercus cuspidata Thunb. var. sinensis A DC.; Quercus sclerophylla Lindley & Paxton; Synaedrys sclerophylla (Lindley & Paxton) Koidzumi;