Giant Chinquapin
Chrysolepis chrysophylla
Giant chinquapin holds leathery evergreen leaves that are dark above and coated beneath in golden scurf, so the canopy flickers gold as it moves. Creamy catkins in summer carry a heavy scent, and the nuts sit inside spiny burs like a chestnut's. Slow, long-lived and intolerant of root disturbance or summer water.
- Family
- Fagaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 30–80 ft
- Spacing
- 20–40 ft apart
- Light
- part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- neutral
- Bloom
- July, August
- Bloom colors
- yellow, brown
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, mammals, pollinators
- Landscape uses
- specimen, naturalizing
- Native states
- CA, OR, WA