The Chinese Chestnut has been planted occasionally in the Eastern and Midwestern US for its production of nuts, after the fall of the American species from the blight. The ones I have seen tend to be about 30 to 40 feet high and often wider in spread with many low branches, growing to 60 feet possible. Therefore, this species grows shorter and wider than the American species, often being multi-leadered in trunks. The leaves often are rough hairy underneath, at least on the veins.( The word "mollissima' in Latin means very hairy.) The leaves are 3 to 8 inches long and 2 to 3.5 inches wide with either small or large teeth on the margins that are straight and not curved. The leaves tend to be widest just past the middle, closer to the tip. The twigs are hairy towards the tips and are green to tan with large, elliptical, yellowish lenticels. The buds should have some hair and are tan to black, rounded, and flat against the twig. The 2 to 3 nuts in the spiny capsule are large and sweet and are 3/4 to 2 inches wide. The Chinese Chestnut is planted to be a nut tree in the US, and of course, like other chestnuts, the fallen fruit hurts if one steps on the sharp hairs of the capsules, definitely not for ornamental purposes in a yard. (One method of bringing back the American Chestnut has been breeding it with this Chinese species so that plants that are about 15/16ths American and only 1/16th Chinese are starting to be planted to restore the native species.)

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