Scientific Name : Castanopsis fissa (Champ. ex Benth.) Rehder and E.H. Wilson
Common Name : Castanopsis, Chestnut oak
Chinese Name : 黧蒴錐, 裂斗錐栗
Family : FAGACEAE
Local distribution status : Native species
| Origin | Native to Hong Kong and Southeast China, it also distributed in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. |
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| Meanings of name | The specific epithet fissa means fissure, referring to its fruits splitting into segments at maturity. |
| Ecology | The cupule of Chestnut oak is extremely hard to chew and obsessed only by rodents and other scatter hoarders. Due to the absence of seed predators, the cupule can only be dispersed by gravity and cram in a close distance. According to some studies, the distance of seed dispersal of Chestnut oak is probably confined to only 5 m in forests. |
| Application |
Chestnut oak is a fast-growing evergreen tree with great resilience to multiple environments. It is one of the few native species that earned a success during the early reforestation in Hong Kong. It has been still engaged as a pioneer tree species to ameliorate soil erosion. The wood is fine and favourable for making furniture, doors and box boards. Likewise, the profusely starchy fruits were collected and processed into congee by Hong Kong villagers when there was starvation during the Japanese occupation. |
| Growing habit | Large evergreen tree. |
|---|---|
| Height | To 20 m. |
| Stems | Bark greyish brown, coarse when mature. Branchlets red-purple, ribs conspicuous. |
| Leaves | Leaves blade alternate, thick papery, highly variable in size and shape, oblong to obovate-elliptic, base cuneate, with rounded teeth，undulate and crenate on the lower half. Lateral veins many, usually 15 –20 pairs, raised abaxially. Adaxially glabrous, abaxially yellowish brown puberulent first, glabrescent. |
| Flower | Spikes erect, forming a panicle, resembling fireworks. Unisexual, monoecious, many-flowered, stamens white, compressed/clustered. |
| Fruit | Cupule ovoid to ellipsoid, slightly dark reddish brown tomentose, fully enclosing the nut when immature, splitting into 2-3 irregular segments at maturity. Nut 1 per cupule, globose to elliptic, brown red. |
| Flowering period | April to June in Hong Kong. |
| Fruiting period | October to December in Hong Kong. |
Scientific name above is based on Hong Kong Herbarium website :
https://herbarium.gov.hk/en/hk-plant-database/plant-detail/index.html?pType=species&oID=3786
Scientific names from other databases :
― Flora of China : Castanopsis fissa (Champion ex Bentham) Rehder & E. H. Wilson
― Plant of the World Online : Castanopsis fissa (Champion. ex Benth.) Rehder and E.H. Wilson