The Original Mystery Plant
Dr. John Nelson

Photo by Linda Lee

The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) is a tree that shall for evermore be immortalized as a true forest giant of the eastern USA, often up to 100' tall, and frequently with a trunk diameter of greater than four feet. It is a species that utterly dominated forest ecosystems in both the mountains and piedmont and represented the most commercially important hardwood species, highly prized for its valuable lumber.

It is somewhat fancifully suggested that at one time long ago, before the onslaught of European settlers, a squirrel would have been able to run from Maryland to northern Alabama along the branches of American chestnuts, due to their great abundance...which of course is perhaps stretching it a bit.

Sadly, these mighty giants have essentially vanished, having fallen away due to an introduced fungal disease known as chestnut blight. Occasionally in the forests you can now find sprouts of American chestnut, but they never or rarely attain much size.

This week's mystery plant is a close relative of the American chestnut...a relative that is impervious to the fungus. It is a small tree, usually not more than about 20' tall, and with characteristic sharply-sawtoothed leaves. It occurs in every county of South Carolina, and in a number of upland, high-ground habitats. The flowers are tiny and inconspicuous, without any petals. Separate male flowers and female flowers occur on the same plant. If all goes well, each female flower will be able to produce a hard, shiny, brown, sweet nut about an inch long, held tightly in a bright green, very spiny bur. The burs eventually open up in the fall, releasing the sweet nuts, which are a prized food for wildlife.

Smilax glusman

Answer to last week's mystery plant

Editor's note: Beginning with this week's issue, we will give the answer to the mystery plant the same week it is published.

Answer to this week's mystery plant

Chinquapin, Dwarf chestnut, Castanea pumila

Dr. John Nelson is the curator of the USC Herbarium.

To learn more about the Herbarium, call 777-8196. The

department also offers free plant identification.

www.herbarium.org