Castanopsis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses of "chinquapin" or "chinkapin", see Chinquapin (disambiguation).

Castanopsis
Temporal range:
Ma
Castanopsis sieboldii
Calybia (nuts) of Castanopsis sieboldii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Fagaceae
Subfamily:
Quercoideae
Genus: Castanopsis
(D. Don) Spach, 1841
Species

About 140; see text

Synonyms

Limlia Masamune & Tomiya
Pasaniopsis Kudo
Shiia Makino
and see text

Castanopsis, commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a

Pacific United States, which are sometimes included within Castanopsis but are more often considered a separate but very closely related genus, Chrysolepis
.

They show many characters typical of

calybium, the kind of encased nut typical of Fagaceae. The calybium (nut) resembles a pointed acorn
; the cupule (casing) is hard like that of beechnuts and spiny like that of chestnuts. Three thickened ridges run the length of the calybium's shell.

Uses and ecology

In their rather circumscribed area of occurrence, Castanopsis are able to inhabit a wide range of temperate to tropical

climax vegetation in essentially their entire continental Asian range, as well as on Taiwan
.

Garzweiler (Germany), 2006. Click to enlarge; note Bagger 288
and 289 in the left background.

Plants of this genus grow on many

arid habitat. Around the Oligo-Miocene boundary, Castanopsis grew abundantly along rivers and in bogs and swamps of then-subtropical Europe. The prehistoric plant community Castanopsietum oligo-miocenicum is the source of much of the lignite
("brown coal") deposits in Western and Central Europe.

Most species yield valuable

metric tons of lignite - much of which was former chinkapin trees - were mined in Germany
in 2001.

As with many Fagaceae, the

corvids, rodents, deer and pigs
, the nuts are popular as food too.

Matsudo, Chiba in Japan use shii (椎; Castanopsis cuspidata)[verification needed] as one of their municipal symbols. The well-known and commercially important shiitake mushroom likes to grow on the logs of C. cuspidata and derives its common name from this: shii-take simply means "Castanopsis cuspidata mushroom".

Shii
(Castanopsis cuspidata) parts drawing
Castanopsis sieboldii leaves

Species

Main article: List of Castanopsis species

Formerly placed here

Fossil record

Fossil species known from Miocene Europe are:

  • Castanopsis pyramidata (Menzel) Kirchheimer
  • Castanopsis salinarum (Unger) Kirchheimer
  • Castanopsis schmidtiana (Geinitz) Kräusel

These are known and identifiable from their fruit. It is not entirely clear if they belong here or into

form taxa refer to the remains of these trees, at least in part: the fossil wood Castanoxylon eschweilerense and the fossil pollen Tricolporopollenites cingulum ssp. pusillus.[2]

Castanopsis praefissa and Castanopsis praeouonbiensis are described from fossil specimens collected from the upper

globose with branched spines, and a broadly ovate nut scar. The fossil leaves and cupule have been compared with those extant in this genus. Castanopsis praefissa shows the closest affinity to C. fissa, and C. praeouonbiensis closely resembles C. ouonbiensis. Castanopsis praeouonbiensis and C. praefissa became extinct in this area because of the cooling climate from the late Miocene to the present day in Zhejiang Province.[3]

The oldest known records of the genus are those of Castanopsis rothwellii and Castaneophyllum patagonicum from the Eocene of Patagonia.[4]

References

  1. ^ Strijk, J.S. (September 4, 2018). "Castanopsis - On: asianfagaceae.com – The complete database for information on the evolutionary history, diversity, identification and conservation of over 700 Species of Asian trees". Asian Fagaceae. Archived from the original on 2017-06-27. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
  2. ISSN 1475-4983
    .
  3. S2CID 18909589
    .
  4. S2CID 208032602
    .

External links

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