Castanea pumila, (L.) Mill.

Form.—Height 20-30 feet, diameter 1-2 feet, in West Virginia usually much smaller; trunk short, supporting a rounded crown.

Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 2-6 inches long, lanceolate or oblong, narrowed at both ends, coarsely serrate, thick, smooth and yellow-green on the upper surface, paler and covered with a whitish down beneath.

Flowers.—May-June; monoecious; staminate flowers in clusters along the catkin; the pistillate borne at the base of the upper catkins in rounded, prickly involucres.

Fruit.—Matures in early autumn; bur covered with stiff spines and enclosing usually only one ovoid brown nut which is very sweet and edible.

Bark.—On trunk lightly furrowed and with flat ridges broken into light brown, loose plates.

Wood.—Light, hard, strong, coarse-grained, brown, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood.

Range.—Pennsylvania and New Jersey south to Florida and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Not widely distributed but common in some sections. Observed in the following counties: Mercer, Wyoming, Summers, Fayette, Logan, and Boone. Reported also from Wayne, Monroe, Mingo, Braxton, Gilmer, Pendleton, Greenbrier, Grant and Nicholas counties.

Habitat.—Dry slopes and flats and stream borders.

Notes.—This species is usually a shrub in West Virginia, often bearing fruit when only a few feet high. Several trees observed south of the Kanawha River were well-formed, 20-25 feet tall, and with straight trunks 6-8 inches in diameter. The Chinquapin is chiefly prized on account of its nuts. It is susceptible to the attack of chestnut blight and may eventually be killed out by this disease.