Is hazelnut a chestnut?

Both hazelnuts and chestnuts are nuts, but they are two different foods. There are great differences in appearance, taste, and nutritional effects. Hazelnuts are a relatively hard nut and taste more fragrant. They have a relatively high fat content, while chestnuts are a relatively soft, glutinous, and sweet nut and taste very delicious. They are different nuts. Let's take a look at their specific differences.

Are hazelnuts chestnuts?

1. Family

Hazelnut: Hazel is a plant of the Betulaceae family, Corylus genus. It is a wood oil-bearing tree species and one of the important nut tree species. Its fruit is hazelnut, which is the "first of the four major nuts" (walnut, almond, hazelnut, cashew) and is known as the "king of nuts".

Chestnut: Chestnut belongs to the genus Castanea in the Fagaceae family, and is native to China. The oil chestnut produced in western Hunan, China is the most nutritious chestnut and is known as the "Chinese sweet chestnut".

2. Appearance

Color: Although hazelnuts and chestnuts are both brown, the color of hazelnut shells is slightly lighter, like coffee with cream, while the color of chestnut shells is darker, like the color of milk chocolate.

Texture: Hazelnut shells are very hard, like walnut shells, while chestnut shells are softer and can be broken with a fingernail.

Grain: Both hazelnuts and chestnuts have vertical grains. The grains on hazelnuts are very prominent and obvious, while the grains on chestnuts are very thin and not obvious.

3. Taste

Hazelnut: Hazelnut has a natural aroma. The kernel has a high oil content and a greasy feeling. It tastes crispy and smooth, and has a lingering aftertaste.

Chestnut: After peeling, chestnuts do not have the unique aroma of hazelnuts, but they are soft and sweeter, and not greasy.

4. Efficacy

Hazelnuts: Hazelnuts are rich in oil, which is beneficial to the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in the human body. They have a good nourishing effect on people who are weak, weak after illness, and easily hungry. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that hazelnuts have the effects of nourishing the spleen and stomach, strengthening qi and strength, improving eyesight and promoting mobility, and are beneficial for symptoms such as thirst, night sweats, and frequent urination at night.

Chestnut: Chestnut is sweet and cold in nature, and has the functions of nourishing the stomach and spleen, tonifying the kidneys and strengthening the tendons. Eating chestnuts raw can also treat sore waist and legs, and relax muscles and tendons. The high starch content in chestnuts can provide high calories, while potassium helps maintain normal heartbeat rhythm, and fiber can strengthen the intestines and keep the excretion system functioning normally. Chestnuts are also beneficial in assisting the treatment of kidney deficiency.

5. Tree shape

Hazelnut: The bark of hazelnut is gray, and the branches are dark gray and hairless. The leaves are rectangular or broadly obovate, with a concave or truncated apex, a triangular tip in the center, irregularly serrated edges, and petioles sparsely covered with short hairs or nearly glabrous. The male inflorescence is solitary, the fruit bract is bell-shaped, densely covered with short soft hairs and sparsely long soft hairs, shallowly lobed at the top, the lobes are triangular, and the edges are entire. Pedicel densely pubescent. The nut is nearly spherical, glabrous or only sparsely covered with long soft hairs at the top.

Chestnut: The chestnut tree is 15 to 20 meters tall, with dark gray bark, twigs with short or scattered hairs, and no terminal buds. Leaves are alternate, arranged in 2 rows, ovate-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate. The flowers are unisexual, monoecious, the male inflorescences are spike-shaped, and the female flowers are clustered at the base of the male inflorescences on the upper part of the branches. The sharp spines of the mature cupule are long or short, sparse or dense. When they are dense, they completely cover the outer wall of the cupule, while when they are sparse, the outer wall is visible.

6. Origin

Hazelnut: Hazelnut grows in shrubs on the shady slopes of mountains at an altitude of 200 to 1000 meters. It is mainly produced in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi in China, and is also distributed in Turkey, Italy, Spain, the United States, North Korea, Japan, Russia's East and West Siberia and Far East, and eastern Mongolia.

Chestnut: Chestnuts are mostly grown on gentle slopes of low mountains and hills and riverbanks. Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Luoshan in Xinyang, and Zhen'an in southern Shaanxi are famous chestnut producing areas. Except for a few provinces and regions such as Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Hainan, chestnuts are produced in various parts of China from north to south.