''Castanopsis cuspidata'' (Japanese chinquapin;

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

tsuburajii, 円椎) is a species of ''

Castanopsis ''Castanopsis'', commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. The Engli ...

'' native to southern

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and southern

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. It is a medium-sized

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

growing to 20–30 m tall, related to

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are 5–9 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, leathery in texture, with an entire or irregularly toothed margin. It grows in woods and ravines, especially near the sea. The

cotyledon A cotyledon ( ; ; "a cavity, small cup, any cup-shaped hollow", gen. (), ) is a "seed leaf" – a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant – and is formally defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or mor ...

of the nut is eaten boiled or roasted. Its dead wood serves as host to many mushroom types, most notably the ''

shiitake The shiitake (; ''Chinese/black mushroom'' or ''Lentinula edodes'') is a macrofungus native to East Asia, which is cultivated and consumed around the globe. Taxonomy The fungus was first described scientifically as '' Agaricus edodes'' by ...

'', whose Japanese name is composed of , and .

Gallery

File:Castanopsis cuspidata1.jpg, Bark of base of mature tree File:Shinomura-Hachiman-gû Shintô Shrine - Castanopsis cuspidata.jpg, Tall trunk of mature tree File:Castanopsis cuspidata4.jpg, Slender, fountain-like canopy of mature specimen, viewed from beneath File:Castanopsis cuspidata.JPG, Mature, deep green leaves File:Castanopsis cuspidata kz04.jpg, Flowering shoots File:Castanopsis cuspidata kz02.jpg, Closeup of slender inflorescences File:Castanopsis cuspidata nuts, by Omar Hoftun.jpg, Edible seeds/nuts File:Castanopsis cuspidata (Thunb.) Schottky (AM AK375744-2).jpg, Preserved specimen from herbarium, with descriptive notes File:Lentinula edodes USDA.jpg, Dead trunk, with

fruiting bodies The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

References

External links

* (enter "''Castanopsis cuspidata''" in search box). cuspidata Edible nuts and seeds Trees of Asia Trees of Japan Trees of South Korea {{Fagales-stub