I usually learn the name of new plant or tree by "discovering it" in the wild, and searching for it's most prominent properties on Google Images. This time, however, I had the reverse happen. I was looking through Backyard Foraging and noticed how other-wordly chestnuts look. Here's a an example from this site:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqkCmUFIcIS6TX4CSS3QeQatuCMWoDGrgWl1oZCFryEZAiTKsqfe4kAXA-uzOvSNS-_Wqr0nxwsCZbsF5yFhhuHKhTB3PKywU64DCEgrwnKwwNpUMb0zFPCqcD_GlHthRAK5_qg/s580/chestnut.png)
Seriously, a nut wrapped in green or brown spines? You'd have to be blind not to notice this tree in your neighborhood. I mean, what could be easier to identify? I'd certainly never seen a chestnut tree, I knew that much.
And then I'm on a run last night, a route I've done hundreds of times (though not within the last year, probably) and across from a set of baseball fields in Pentagon City I see these guys hanging from trees:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe0omgENfPeov4b-wcK89L1kPvKdceVBE7CjAOmturokUyXO_s_FYsxMshWtYGVfb6JABJg1Xi5AACNuw7o9aIDlEUvqYSAYx6A7_I-UGNob-2O5UJlIHKI3ruWx2MG7gX4NA3lg/s580/20130818_183434.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCF8wr9OmcFoeeJskoTk_R29CzuqIqGsDDLo_-XXjXE_7C_90F9MouZBG1UedWYhfDSFrsfI46ecoD4FLN0hMu0aqZauBMYpPZ3TbrqE4HqPwmEx4o8nujxLlkzPfIgq_hZfQeg/s580/20130818_183445.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZlbbyLTRcWQxwmvQoaRh78joHdTx2oQb0nZfMb7ZHTZ0L2gdEZDnDUB59zgskkBzCE2vbVtK7VzsF_fqShAXoddG4_kYYDOPvjSCL3w4KdzwK2CBlyIL4YOZwDPA3hg2GoAugw/s580/20130818_183511(0).jpg)
Holy Smokes, I do believe those are chestnuts in the making! Chestnuts are apparently ripe in the fall, so what I think I'm seeing there are a batch of unripe ones. And we're not talking one tree, we're talking like 3 or 4 of them. And again, this isn't in some hidden corner of Arlington, this is a 2 minute walk from Pentagon City Mall.
Once again, I give you the difference between seeing and paying attention.
To me, that does not look like a chestnut tree. Maybe do a little more checking...
ReplyDelete@anonymous -
ReplyDeleteYou may very well be correct. It's definitely keep an eye on it, and compare the different phases of the tree to known photos.
It's so easy to make a plant "fit" a match that it doesn't belong to.
My neighbor had a horse chestnut tree.When it bloomed it smelled so bad I could not go outside. Thankfully lightening killed it.
ReplyDelete