Chinese Chestnut (Castanea mollissima) 3-year old seedling

Castanea mollissima is widely used as a rootstock for grafting the cultural sweet chestnut varieties, but the tree can also be grown for its sweet, tasty fruit. It is cultivated in China as a shell fruit and is economically the most important type of chestnut, ahead of the related European sweet chestnut. Chinese chestnut is the primary genetic source of resistance to the parasitic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica before Endothia parasitica, which causes chestnut blight. If the tree is attacked, a defensive mechanism is triggered and therefore the fungus does not cause death.

Origin: seedlings were grown from seeds imported directly from China's Shanxi Province, Taigu County. The best for produce resistant chestnut saplings.
Flowering period: April to June
Leaves: top and the bottom of the leave surface of original wild C. mollissima is covered with small trichomes (from which is derived second scientific name mollissima). That is mean leaves surface is matt, not shiny as some C. mollisima varieties, because our seedlings has genuine C. mollissima genome without influence of C. crenata genome.
Fruits: usually two or three nut fruits are formed per fruit cup. They are 2 to 3 cm in diameter and wider than longer. They are round or elliptical with a long, white hairy tip.
The chestnut kernel has a very sweet taste and is richer in protein than the kernel of sweet chestnuts
Ripening period: August to October
Disease resistance: of all the chestnut species, Chinese chestnut has the strongest resistance to chestnut blight