Sweet Chestnut
Latin name:
Castanea sativa
Description:
Trees which can become massive, comparable to oak trees. The leaves are elongated-ovoidal, serrated, and might remind you a little bit on oak leaves. The bark is longitudinally striped, rough, dark and similar to that of the closely related oak. Male flowers are concentrated in catkins, which spread out like little fingers from the origin in a number of 5 to 10. They are pollinated by beetles, but if this has not happened, wind pollination is their next choice in the course of a day. The fruit is well known as sweet chestnut, it´s very spiny at the outside but delicious as «maroni».
Start of the season:
The flowering season is June to July.
Allergenicity:
The sweet chestnut has low to moderate allergenicity.
Crossreactions are known with birch, alder, hazel, beech, oak, hornbeam and hopbeam.
