@pmurphy posted a photo from Castanea mollissima ( Castanea Mollissima - chinese chestnut) and I mentioned seeing a beautiful chestnut in bloom recently. Here's what I think is Castanea sativa, European chestnut, at the Dania Home in Burnaby, visible from the parking lot of the Danish Lutheran Church next door.
Genetic pool of randomly encountered planted specimens includes named horticultural hybrids and their open pollinated seedlings, is not limited to examples of the parental species. Chestnut Trees | Burnt Ridge Nursery & Orchards
OK, thanks. I understand you to be saying that it's as likely to be a hybrid with Castanea crenata (which is not a name I know) or C. mollissima as it is to be a species tree.
I don't believe there's much of a history of planting chestnuts other than Castanea sativa (and possibly C. mollissima) around Vancouver. One might run across C. crenata (Japanese chestnut) south of the border, and perhaps east of the Cascades in BC, but I don't believe that that species or its hybrids were ever available here commercially (illegal importations notwithstanding). I could be wrong. Identifying existing trees is problematic, as the species are all pretty similar, and I can guarantee that hybrids would be even more challenging to sort out. I'm currently looking for old catalogues from Fraser Valley nurseries (in a box somewhere in the Reading Room, I think). These might shed some light on this question.
