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How to Identify Edible Chestnuts
By: Leigh Nichol ● 21 July, 2017

Plan Your Garden →

Tip
Do not confuse edible chestnuts with horse
Learn which plants chestnuts or buckeyes, which are both
thrive in your inedible.
Hardiness Zone with
our new interactive A Chinese chestnut tree is not the same
map!
thing as a water chestnut. A water chestnut

Visit Map → is a native Asian aquatic plant with corms on

the roots that are harvested and used in
Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images many Asian dishes.

There are four di erent varieties of edible chestnuts: American, European, Chinese and Japanese.
The chestnut tree is related to the beech and the oak tree. Chestnuts used to be the main starch
staple in Europe until the potato was introduced. When edible chestnuts are boiled the nuts have
a similar texture to potatoes, with a sweet nutty avor. Now chestnuts are not as popular as they
once were, but there are commercial farms to supply the demand. Mature American chestnut
trees are rare in the wild due to infestation by the chestnut blight in the early 20th century.

x

To identify an edible chestnut in the wild is not very hard; you just need to know what you are
looking for. Impostors such as horse chestnuts and Ohio buckeyes, though similar in appearance,
are not related to edible chestnuts; these seeds contain a poison in their raw state, so it is
important to be able to distinguish them from edible chestnuts.

There are four di erent varieties of edible chestnuts: American, European, Chinese and
Japanese.

Impostors such as horse chestnuts and Ohio buckeyes, though similar in appearance,
are not related to edible chestnuts; these seeds contain a poison in their raw state, so it
is important to be able to distinguish them from edible chestnuts.

Identify the tree that the chestnut has fallen

from as a chestnut tree. It will have long oval
leaves that are yellowish green, and yellow in
the fall. On the leaves there will be small hooks
that curve up all along the edge of the leaf.
Ohio buckeye trees have similar leaves, but the
buckeye leaves are usually grouped together in
a fan of ve leaves and turn orange in the fall.
A horse chestnut tree has a rounder shaped
John Foxx/Stockbyte/Getty Images leaf, and these leaves group together in a fan
of about seven leaves.

Observe how the fruit hangs from the tree.

Edible chestnuts often hang in pairs or in
threes or clusters.

Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

Identify the tree that the chestnut has fallen from as a chestnut tree.

A horse chestnut tree has a rounder shaped leaf, and these leaves group together in a
fan of about seven leaves.

Look at the casing the chestnut is wrapped in

when hanging on the tree. An edible chestnut
is wrapped in a spiny case that is called a burr.
The spines are long and ne. If it is an Ohio
buckeye, the outer casing has many thick,
knobby spurs. A horse chestnut's shell
resembles the Ohio buckeye's but it does not
have as many spurs.

Michael Blann/Photodisc/Getty Images
Remove the chestnut from the burr and look at
the shape of the fruit. An edible chestnut will
have a shiny brown color, a at bottom and a
point on the top. Non-edible chestnuts will not
have this point at the top.

Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images

Look at the casing the chestnut is wrapped in when hanging on the tree.

An edible chestnut will have a shiny brown color, a at bottom and a point on the top.

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Home / Trees

Share this article What Is the Difference Between a Horse Chestnut &
a Chestnut Tree?
By: Janet Bayers ● 17 June, 2013
Plan Your Garden →

The tree with the common name “horse

chestnut” isn’t a chestnut tree at all. Its
Learn which plants botanical name is Aesculus hippocastanum,
thrive in your
Hardiness Zone with and it belongs to the Sapindaceae family, which
our new interactive also includes maples. The native American
map!
chestnut tree, which is nearly extinct in the
Visit Map → United States because of a fungal disease, is
Castanea dentata, a member of the Fagaceae,
or beech, family. A third tree, the Ohio buckeye
Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images (Aesculus glabra), also produces nuts that are
sometimes called horse chestnuts.

Habit
The horse chestnut tree is the largest of the three, reaching more than 100 feet tall in a dome
shape. In spring, it produces fat, fragrant, foot-long panicles of white owers with red dots at their
base. The Ohio buckeye grows to 50 feet tall and produces unscented pale-yellow ower clusters
in early June. The American chestnut tree reaches about 40 feet tall and blooms in June with 8-
inch-long catkins of fragrant, creamy-white owers.

The tree with the common name “horse chestnut” isn’t a chestnut tree at all.

The American chestnut tree reaches about 40 feet tall and blooms in June with 8-inch-
long catkins of fragrant, creamy-white owers.

Leaves
All three trees are deciduous. The American chestnut has shiny, yellow-green leaves with curving
teeth along the edges that turn yellow in the fall. The seven lea ets of the horse chestnut are
larger and coarser and emerge a light green, turning dark green as they mature. The nely
toothed leaves of the Ohio buckeye are narrow and medium green. They turn gold and orange in
the fall.

Nuts
The American chestnut produces sweet, edible nuts inside spiny burrs containing two or three
teardrop-shaped seeds. Ohio buckeye nuts ripen in late summer and early fall inside thick,
knobby husks. There is usually only one shiny, brown nut inside each. Horse chestnuts grow
inside thick, green, spiny husks that can contain up to four nuts. Neither buckeyes nor horse
chestnuts are edible; they contain dangerous toxins.

All three trees are deciduous.

The American chestnut has shiny, yellow-green leaves with curving teeth along the
edges that turn yellow in the fall.

Culture
Plant horse chestnut in full or part sun in well-drained soil with regular moisture. It isn’t fussy
about soil type and thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 8.
American chestnut, which thrives in USDA zones 5 through 8, prefers full sun and moist, well-
drained soil. Ohio buckeye grows in USDA zones 3 through 7 in full or part sun and does well in
moist, fertile soil. Trees in the genus Aesculus have taproots and are not easily transplanted.

Habitat
Horse chestnut is native to Southeast Europe, where it grows in mixed forests. The American
chestnut is native to the Eastern U.S. hardwood forest. The Ohio buckeye is native to the forests
of Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, northern Iowa and Illinois, and east to western Pennsylvania.

Plant horse chestnut in full or part sun in well-drained soil with regular moisture.

Ohio buckeye grows in USDA zones 3 through 7 in full or part sun and does well in
moist, fertile soil.

Lore
In Britain and Ireland, horse chestnuts are attached to strings and used for a children's game
called conkers. In her diary, Anne Frank mentions the horse chestnut tree in the center of
Amsterdam, which stood until 2010. The buckeye got its name from Native Americans, who
decided it resembled the eye of a deer. Since colonial times, buckeyes and horse chestnuts have
been carried as good luck charms.

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