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Castanopsis
Also called Berangan, Chinquapins, Chinkapin
Castanopsis, commonly called chinquapin or chinkapin, is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the beech family, Fagaceae. The genus contains about 140 species, which are today restricted to tropical and subtropical eastern Asia. The English name chinkapin is shared with other related plants, including the golden chinkapins of the Pacific Northwest, which are sometimes included within Castanopsis but are more often considered a separate but very closely related genus, Chrysolepis.
Castanopsis had a much broader geographic range in the past than it does today. During the Plio-Pleistocene, glacial cooling and a drier climate caused the genus to disappear from Europe, North America, and parts of northern Asia. At present, Castanopsis is primarily found in tropical and subtropical regions of eastern and southeastern Asia. A total of 58 species are native to China, with 30 endemic; the other species occur further south, through Indochina to Indonesia and the Philippines, mountainous areas of Taiwan, and also in Japan.
Most species yield valuable timber but some have become rare due to unsustainable logging; C. catappifolia is even in danger of extinction. As noted above, however, perhaps the most important use for Castanopsis wood is in its fossil form. 175,400 metric tons of lignite – much of which was former chinkapin trees – were mined in Germany in 2001.
Papua New Guinea Oak · Castanopsis argentea · Castanopsis borneensis · Castanopsis buruana · Castanopsis catappifolia · Castanopsis clemensii · Chinquapin · Castanopsis costata · Castanopsis curtisii · Japanese Chinquapin · Castanopsis densinervia · Castanopsis endertii
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Castanopsis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
