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Food - Seeds are eaten raw or cooked. The burrs (seed cases) are rich in tannin and are astringent and stomachic. Medicine - A decoction is used in the treatment of diarrhoea, uncontrollable nose bleed, dysentery, regurgitation and profound thirst.
China, North Korea
It grows in woods and forests altitude up to 2500 m asl.
Is resistant to chestnut blight. With a long history of cultivation, a staple crop/ingredient in Chinese agriculture and cuisine.
It is a deciduous tree with an open, rounded crown and grow up to 20 m tall.
Bole can be 50 cm in diameter, usually branching from low down. Branchlets with short pubescence, often also with long spreading hairs.
Petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 10-17 cm or rarely shorter, at least along veins abaxially tomentose to softly pubescent, adaxially scalelike glands sometimes absent, base rounded to truncate, margin coarsely serrate, apex acute to acuminate.
Male inflorescences 10-20 cm. Cupule densely covered with pubescent spinelike bracts.
A spiky green husk (bur) containing 1-3 glossy brown nuts. The nuts are about 2.5 cm in diameter. When ripe, the burs split open, releasing the nuts.
Flowering: April – June
Fruiting: August – October