Chinese Chestnut

I walked across the lawn with Jim when I saw a large spiny bur lying on the grass that looked like the Rambutan fruit that I had on a daily basis when I was traveling in Malaysia in my early 20’s.

“What is that”, I said to Jim and picked it up without waiting for his answer. At the same moment I jumped in the air in agony. In contrast to soft hair that covers the Rambutan this until then unknown to me species has spines that are razor sharp and just got stuck in my fingers.

Jim who was looking at me in disbelief was probably thinking “dumb city kid”. After I got this nasty “ball of death” off my hand Jim told me that this tree was a Chinese chestnut tree. The chestnuts are edible and apparently taste very good but getting to them is not so easy.

He also told me the story that he was mowing the lawn one day and one of these burs fell on his head and got stuck there.

And I thought living in the city was rough.

"Chinese Chestnut" Warington/Pennsylvania/Nieves's and Jim's Chinese chest nuts 09/21/08 at 08:45 AM

Please check out my website at carstenfleck.com