A Sweet Chestnut Castanea sativa cupule, split open to reveal the nuts.

A cupule is a fruit structure found in flowering plants in the family Fagaceae. It holds and protects the nut during its growth and maturation. In some genera (e.g. Lithocarpus, Quercus), it only partly encloses the single nut, while in others (e.g. Castanea, Fagus), it fully encloses the two or more nuts, and splits open at maturity into four valves to release the nuts. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 386 KB) Chestnuts File links The following pages link to this file: Chestnut User:Fir0002/FPCandidates User:Fir0002/Fir0002 gallery ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 386 KB) Chestnuts File links The following pages link to this file: Chestnut User:Fir0002/FPCandidates User:Fir0002/Fir0002 gallery ... Binomial name Castanea sativa Mill. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... Classes Magnoliopsida- Dicots Liliopsida- Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Genera Castanea - Chestnuts Castanopsis Chrysolepis - Golden chinkapin Colombobalanus Fagus - Beeches Formanodendron Lithocarpus - Stone oaks Nothofagus - Southern beeches Quercus - Oaks Trigonobalanus The family Fagaceae, or beech family, is characterized by alternate leaves with pinnate venation, flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of nuts, one to seven... Hazelnuts from the Common Hazel Chestnut // Botanical definition A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains unattached or unfused with the ovary wall. ... Species Lithocarpus cleistocarpus Lithocarpus densiflorus - Tanoak Lithocarpus edulis - Japanese Stone Oak Lithocarpus glaber Lithocarpus henryi - Henrys Stone Oak Lithocarpus pachyphyllus and many more Lithocarpus is a genus in the beech family Fagaceae. ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... Species - Bush Chinkapin* - Japanese Chestnut - American Chestnut - Henrys Chestnut - Chinese Chestnut - Ozark Chinkapin - Alleghany Chinkapin - Sweet Chestnut - Seguins Chestnut * treated as a synonym of by many authors Chestnuts (Castanea), including the chinkapins, are a genus of eight or nine species of trees and shrubs in the beech family... Species Fagus crenata - Japanese Beech Fagus engleriana - Chinese Beech Fagus grandifolia - American Beech Fagus hayatae - Taiwan Beech Fagus japonica - Japanese Blue Beech Fagus longipetiolata - South Chinese Beech Fagus lucida - Shining Beech Fagus mexicana - Mexican Beech or Haya Fagus orientalis - Oriental Beech Fagus sylvatica - European Beech Beech (Fagus) is a genus...

The cupule is covered by numerous scales. In some (e.g. Castanea), the scales are developed into sharp spines, giving the nut protection from squirrels and other seed predators, while in others (e.g. most Quercus), they are not. In Lithocarpus, the cupule is very hard and bone-like in texture. Genera Many, see the article Sciuridae. ...

The involucre is a similar structure found in the related family Betulaceae, notably in the genera Carpinus and Corylus; it differs in being more leafy in appearance, but performs a similar role in protecting the developing nuts. The term involucre is also used for similar structures in a number of other unrelated plant families. Genera Alnus - Alder Betula - Birch Carpinus - Hornbeam Corylus - Hazel Ostrya - Hop-hornbeam Ostryopsis - Hazel-hornbeam Betulaceae, or the Birch Family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams and hop-hornbeams. ... Species Carpinus betulus - European Hornbeam Carpinus caroliniana - American Hornbeam Carpinus cordata - Sawa Hornbeam Carpinus fargesii - Farges Hornbeam Carpinus laxiflora - Aka-shide Hornbeam Carpinus japonica - Japanese Hornbeam Carpinus orientalis - Oriental Hornbeam Carpinus tschonoskii - Chonowskis Hornbeam Carpinus turczaninowii - Turkzaninovs Hornbeam The hornbeams (Carpinus) are a genus of relatively small hardwood... This article is about the tree; for other meanings of hazel, see Hazel (disambiguation). ...