[sequoiamike]

I came across a row of trees, planted, but in a rural setting. They are ca. 12m tall and look to be 30-40 yrs old. They have long (6"+) serrated leaves and the bark is mottled grey like an Alder or Birch. But, I've never seen either of them with this type of leaf. This image is from late August. As you can see in the photo, there are Horsetails below, so it must be comfortable with wet feet, as they all look fairly healthy. Anybody have an idea of what species/variety it is?

[Ado 2]

Sweet chestnut Me thinks

[Greengage]

Agree

[Blowin]

Definitely.

[sequoiamike]

3's a charm, then. Thanks. I was a bit thrown by the bark and there isn't a single nut on any of the 20 or so trees. But, the leaves definitely look the part.

[Blowin]

There's something about the Irish climate that chestnut doesn't like, and what few there are don't seem to behave like their UK counterparts. My Dad worked chestnut all his life, making fencing products from it because it was second only to oak for durability and, because of that, most big estates had several acres of it to provide stakes etc. for their farm sides. It was cut every twelve years and I feel sure English settlers would have tried to get similar systems going, but failed.

There are a couple of very mature examples in Rineen woods, down on the coast near Skibbereen, but nuts are a rarity, even on trees of that age.

[Greengage]

This year seems a good year for chestnuts i wonder does it have a good year every seven years. Although the Horse chestnut is under serious threat from Bleeding canker. I believe Chesterfield Avenue in the phoenix park will loose all its trees to this disease and there are plans to replace them with London plane.

[Blowin]

I doubt it, Greengage. Much of Central France relies on chestnuts for its livelihood (the mountainous region of the Massif Centrale) and healthy ones SHOULD provide a good crop every year. As a child, we lived opposite a huge specimen that was about 4ft through the butt and it never failed.

[Greengage]

OK maybe Horse chestnuts originate from the Balkens /Greece maybe we are on their outer limit.

[tippben]

I seem to remember reading that Castanea sativa was introduced to the UK by the romans, who used the seeds to make a flour. This may explain its scarcity in Ireland. It is very common as coppice in Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey, all in the south of England as cleaved chestnut makes the longest lasting quick growing wood for fencing. I noticed that stands tended to fruit at the same time, similar to Beech. You'd get fruit every year, but only tiny undeveloped ones. Then one year, all the trees would be producing lots of large edible fruits.

I have seen fruiting trees in Ireland, but none with properly developed nuts. Perhaps this could be due to the fact that they are usually specimen trees, and could be suffering from poor pollination?