Chestnut (Castanea spp, C sativa, C vesca, C dentata)
Folk Names: Castanea sativa: Spanish Chestnut, Sweet Chestnut
Castanea vesca: Euboean Nut, Fagus Castanea, Husked Nut, Jupiter's Nut, Sardinia Nut
Description: Chestnut is a member of the beech family. It is widespread throughout Europe and Southern Eurasia, and it is cultivated in the United States. Growing from sixty-five to eighty feet, sometimes even to one hundred to one hundred fifteen feet, it can eventual grow to large diameter in its long life. The chestnut tree is exceptionally long lived (one thousand years). After twenty years, the bark forms raised, gray-brown ridges in a right hand spiral. The large (seven to nine inches) oblong-lanceolate leaves have distinctly raised main and secondary veins and crenate margins. The top of the leaf is green and shiny, while the underside paler. Though the flowers are unisexual and pale yellow, the trees normally require another one of their species in order to produce nuts. The male flowers appear in June from erect catkins. One to three green females are joined in a distinctive cupule at the base of the male catkins or may be found in separate round catkins. One to five chestnuts grow in a woody, spiny bur. These turn brown when the nuts are ripe. The tree is subject to two serious diseases: ink disease and bark canker.
Castanea dentate is the American chestnut. Though now nearly extinct due to chestnut blight (Endothia parasitica) introduced into N. America in the 1800's, trees planted outside the native range (mid-west and west coast) escape the disease and live to maturity. In the eastern US, this species is now a shrub, sprouting from the base then dying back when the disease becomes severe. The leaves are large and spear shaped. They are coarsely toothed and hairless. From September to October, stiff-prickly husks produce two to three slightly flattened nuts. Nuts are relatively small (3-12 g), but said to have the best flavor of the four species. It grows from southern Michigan and southern Maine northeast to Mississippi and Georgia.
Effects: strong
Planet: Jupiter Zodiac: Virgo
Element: fire
Associated Deities:
Traditions:
The name Castanea comes from the town of Castanis in Thessaly where the tree once grew in great abundance.
Magic:
Chestnuts are used most in love and lust spells directed at men. Like many nuts, chestnuts are thought to have a positive affect on male sexuality and potency.
Known Combinations:
An old folk remedy for earaches calls for the powdered nuts to be mixed with mutton tallow. Mixed with honey, the powdered nut-bark was used for cough by Culpepper.
Medical Indications: (Caution:) Parts Used: leaves, wood
The leaves and wood are rich in tannin content and are good for astringent, antispasmodic, and demulcent applications. Culpepper preferred the inner skin of the nut to treat diarrhea. The leaves are considered a particularly effective treatment for whooping cough or any nagging cough.
Nutrition:
Chestnuts are edible. They may be candied or reduced to flour and are quite popular in Italy. The nuts are popular as a stuffing for turkey and pheasant. The best nuts, referred to as Marones, contain fifteen percent sugar. They can be made to yield thick syrup that can be processed into sugar. In France, this is the basis for a popular sweetmeat, Marons glaces.
Check here for a large collection of Chestnut Recipes
Mercantile Uses:
Chestnut wood is useful in tanning. It was also once used as timber for house building in the Mediterranean. Though the older the tree, the more brittle the wood becomes. However, the younger wood has proved more durable than oak in timber that must be in contact with the ground: fences, posts, etc.
The nuts are used in swine food. Chestnut meal has been used to lighten linen and to make starch.