Castanopsis

Taxobox
name = "Castanopsis"

---

image_width = 200px
image_caption = "Castanopsis sieboldii"
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
subclassis = Rosidae
unranked_ordo = Eurosids I
ordo = Fagales
familia = Fagaceae
genus = "Castanopsis"
genus-authority = (D.Don) Spach
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = About 120; see text
synonyms ="Limlia" Masamune & Tomiya
"Pasaniopsis" Kudo
"Shiia" Makino
and see text

"Castanopsis" (chinquapin or chinkapin) is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 120 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. A total of 58 species are native to China, with 30 endemic; the other species occur further south, through Indochina to Indonesia, and also in Japan. The English name chinkapin is shared with other related plants, including the golden chinkapins of the 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 Fagaceae. They are at least large shrubs but some species grow into sizeable trees. Their leaves are usually tough and much sclerotized and have a well-developed cuticula. Their flowers are unisexual, and the male ones are borne in erect catkins. The epigynous female flowers produce a single seed each but are congregated in small clusters. The fruit is a calybium, the kind of encased nut typical of FabaceaeGee "et al." (2003)] . 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 habitat and are often keystone species in their ecosystems. They are plentiful in ecotones as diverse as Borneo montane rain forests, Taiwan subtropical evergreen forests and Northern Triangle temperate forests. Generally they are common in Fagales-dominated montane forests and temperate to subtropical laurel forests. In the latter, they are characteristic elements of the climax vegetation in essentially their entire continental Asian range, as well as on Taiwan.

Plants of this genus grow on many soil types, as long as they are not calcareous. Several species have adapted to podsolic, peat bog, swamp and other acidic and/or wet soils, or to the poor dry soils common in 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 timber but some have become rare due to unsustainable logging, "C. catappaefolia" is even in danger of extinction. As noted above, however, perhaps the most important use for "Castanopsis" wood is in its fossil form. 175,400 metric tons of lignite - much of which which was former chinkapin trees - were mined in Germany in 2001.

As with many Fagaceae, the nuts of many "Castanopsis" species are edible. The trees may be grown for their nuts, but more often they are used as forestry or ornamental trees and the nuts are collected opportunistically. Among many animals, such as tits, corvids, rodents, deer and pigs, the nuts are popular as food too.

Meguro, Tokyo and Matsudo, Chiba in Japan use "shii" (椎; "Castanopsis cuspidata")Verify source|date=December 2007 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".

elected species

* "Castanopsis acuminatissima" (Blume) A. DC. (= "Castanea acuminatissima" Blume, "Quercus junghuhnii" Miq.)
* "Castanopsis argentea" (Blume) A. DC. (= "Castanea argentea" (Blume) Blume)
* "Castanopsis argyrophylla" King ex Hook. f.
* "Castanopsis calathiformis"
* "Castanopsis carlesii" (Hemsl.) Hayata (= "Quercus carlesii" Hemsl.)
* "Castanopsis catappaefolia"
* "Castanopsis ceratacantha"
* "Castanopsis cerebrina"
* "Castanopsis choboensis"
* "Castanopsis chunii"
* "Castanopsis clarkei"
* "Castanopsis concinna"
* "Castanopsis crassifolia"
* "Castanopsis curtisii"
* "Castanopsis cuspidata" – Japanese Chinquapin, "shii"
* "Castanopsis delavayi" Franch.
* "Castanopsis diversifolia" (Kurz) King ex Hook. f. (= "Castanea diversifolia" Kurz)
* "Castanopsis eyrei" (Champ. ex Benth.) Tutcher (= "Castanopsis caudata" Franch., "Quercus eyrei" Champ. ex Benth.)
* "Castanopsis fabri" Hance (= "Castanopsis stellatospina" Hayata)
* "Castanopsis fargesii" Franch. (= "Castanopsis taiwaniana" Hayata)
* "Castanopsis fissa"
* "Castanopsis fordii"
* "Castanopsis globigemmata"
* "Castanopsis hainanensis"
* "Castanopsis hystrix"
* "Castanopsis indica" (Roxb. ex Lindl.) A. DC. (= "Castanea indica" Roxb.)
* "Castanopsis inermis" (Lindl.) Benth. & Hook. f. (= "Callaeocarpus sumatrana" Miq., "Castanea inermis" Lindl., "Castanopsis sumatrana" (Miq.) A. DC.)
* "Castanopsis javanica" (Blume) A. DC. (= "Castanea javanica" (Blume) Blume, "Fagus javanica" Blume, "Quercus discocarpa" Hance, "Quercus javanica" (Blume) Drake)
* "Castanopsis kawakamii"
* "Castanopsis kweichowensis"
* "Castanopsis lamontii"
* "Castanopsis lanceifolia" (Kurz) Hickel & A. Camus
* "Castanopsis longzhouica"
* "Castanopsis mekongensis"
* "Castanopsis nephelioides"
* "Castanopsis orthacantha"
* "Castanopsis philipensis" (Blanco) S. Vidal (= "Fagus philipensis" Blanco)
* "Castanopsis platyacantha"
* "Castanopsis rockii"
* "Castanopsis sclerophylla" (Lindl. & Paxton) Schottky (= "Quercus chinensis" C. Abel, "Quercus sclerophylla" Lindl. & Paxton)
* "Castanopsis scortechinii"
* "Castanopsis sieboldii" (Makino) Hatus. (= "Castanopsis cuspidata" var. "sieboldii" (Makino) Nakai, "Pasania cuspidata" var. "sieboldii" Makino)
* "Castanopsis tessellata" Hickel & A. Camus
* "Castanopsis tibetana" Hance)
* "Castanopsis tribuloides" (Sm.) A. DC. (= "Quercus tribuloides" Sm.)
* "Castanopsis tungurrut" (Blume) A. DC. (= "Castanea tungurrut" Blume)
* "Castanopsis uraiana"
* "Castanopsis wallichii"
* "Castanopsis wattii"
* "Castanopsis xichouensis"

Formerly placed here

* "Castanea henryi" (Skan) Rehder & E. H. Wilson (as "C. henryi" Skan)
* "Chrysolepis"

Fossil record

Fossil species known from Miocene Europe are:
* "Castanopsis pyramidata" (Menzel) Kirchheimer
* "Castanopsis salinarum" (Unger) Kirchheimer
* "Castanopsis schmidtiana" (Geinitz) KräuselThese are known and identifiable from their fruit. It is not entirely clear if they belong here or into "Chrysolepis", but the pattern of biogeography - with the two genera being most diverse around the Pacific but absent from North America east of the Rocky MountainsVerify source|date=December 2007 suggests that they are indeed correctly assigned to "Castanopsis". In addition, two 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".

Footnotes

References

* (2003): A Miocene rodent nut cache in coastal dunes of the Lower Rhine Embayment, Germany. "Palaeontology" 46(6): 1133-1149. doi|10.1046/j.0031-0239.2003.00337.x

External links

* [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=105821 "Flora of China": "Castanopsis"]