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To Roast or Not to Roast

If you are wondering if those spiny covered nuts in your yard are edible chestnuts, be sure to do your homework before hulling and roasting.  The difference between the edible American chestnut and the popular landscaping horse chestnut or Ohio buckeye could turn out to be a toxic snack.  Though they taste bad, and that should be enough to deter someone, if you eat enough of them they could be fatal.  If you did not plant the chestnut tree, with the nuts you are considering eating, chances are it is a horse chestnut or Ohio buckeye.

The American chestnut was not historically an Illinois species but if planted it was able to grow in parts of the state.  They were very dominate in their woodland habitat and took many of the resources from surrounding trees growing massively in both diameter and height.  That dominance fell when different species of chestnuts carrying a fungus were brought to the Bronx Zoological Park in New York City in 1904 from China and Japan.  Because our American chestnut had not evolved with this chestnut blight fungus they were susceptible to it. When the American chestnuts are only a few years old they get small cracks in their bark and this is the opening the blight fungus needed to get in and slowly kill the trees.  It quickly came in contact with the American chestnuts in the park and by the 1940’s the blight had killed most of the American chestnuts in its original range.

Horse chestnuts and the Ohio buckeye have palmately compound leaves.  This means there are many leaflets, 5 to 9, growing around the leaf stem in a circle. They are attached to the branch directly opposite each other.  When you hold one of the leaves they look like a large fan.  The American chestnut has simple individual leaves that have toothed edges that look like the blade of a saw and are attached in an alternate pattern to the branch or not directly across from each other. 

If you are not sure which tree species is on your property you should get it identified by someone before you chose to serve a roasted holiday treat to friends and family.  Better to be on the safe side.

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Source: Peggy Doty, Educator, Environmental and Energy Stewardship and Director of the Natural Resource Education Center,University of Illinois Extension, Unit 2.