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From Wilkapedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut
"Chestnut (Castanea)(including chinkapin or chinquapin) is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. Most of the species are large trees growing to 20-40 m tall, but some species (the chinkapins) are smaller, often shrubby. The leaves are simple, ovate or lanceolate, 10-30 cm long and 4-10 cm broad, with sharply pointed, widely-spaced teeth, with shallow rounded sinuses between. The flowers are catkins, produced in mid summer; they have a heavy, unpleasant odour. The fruit is a spiny cupule 5-11 cm diameter, containing one to seven nuts.The name Castanea comes from the old Latin name for the Sweet Chestnut.Chestnuts should not be confused with either horse-chestnuts (genus Aesculus), or water-chestnut (family Cyperaceae); these are named for producing respectively nuts of similar appearance, and tubers of similar taste."
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