Description of 80 Cultivars and 36 Clonal Selections of Chestnut ( Castanea SativaMill.) from Northwestern Spain

Abstract

Chestnut ( Castanea sativaMill.) is an important species in Galicia, Northwestern Spain, and cultivars for nut and timber production have been reported since Middle Ages. Nut and timber production are mainly based on old grafted cultivars which were supposedly introduced by the Romans. For five years these old cultivars of chestnut were studied by agronomic traits: tree, fruit, burr, leaves, male catkin and phenology. These cultivars were also characterized based on five isoenzyme systems: isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH; EC 1.1.1.42), phosphoglucoisomerase (PGI; EC 5.3.1.9), phosphoglucomutase (PGM; EC 2.7.5.1), malate dehydrogenase (MDH; EC 1.1.1.37), and shikimate dehydrogenase (SKDH; EC 1.1.1.25). This paper presents the most important characteristics of 80 cultivars and 36 clonal selections. This information will be useful for growers choosing cultivars for new orchards and researchers looking for specific agronomic characters. Clonal selections have been made by choosing superior trees within heterogenous cultivars and permitting a clear distinction among cultivars. The most important characteristics of these cultivars are non-divided nuts, sweetness, easy peeling and late harvesting (26 October to 11 November). Some cultivars have very large nuts. The most interesting cultivars are ‘Famosa,’ ‘Garrida,’ ‘Inxerta,’ ‘Ventura,’ ‘Peluda,’ ‘Praga d'Afora,’ ‘Redondo’ and ‘Soutogrande’ whose nuts can be used fresh, peeled, or in marron glacé. There is a great deal of genetic variability in Galician chestnuts and it is recommended that these cultivars be preserved in the Germplasm Bank of the Centro de Investigaciones Forestales de Lourizán.