Stiff, shiny leaves -- Chinese.

That's interesting. I thought chinese chestnuts did not have teethed leaf margins but when I google now it seems to be a lot of variation. The leaves are very stiff but the shine is mostly because of the rain.

That's Chinese. Castanea mollissima.

Thank you for identification and confirmation, I really appreciate it.

I don't believe it IS pure chinese. The shiny leaf is certainly chinese-like, but the stem is too slender and reddish, like American. Chinese stems are fat and green.

My money is on American/asian hybrid. It certainly COULD be something else like European or Japanese, but doesn't look right for that (I have never seen either one except in photos so I am not an expert)

i missed the bit about wet leaves. Leaning American

Chinese/Japanese hybrid. Dentate leaves and lack of pubescence combined with bud structure are telltales.

I found some old pics and even a closeup. At least as a seedling it had some pubescence.

I'm not completely sure but I think these chestnuts did not have special seed leaves but rather the mature leaves all from the beginning. The american chestnuts I grew this year had special seed leaves that did not look like chestnut at all.

This post was edited by Huggorm on Sat, Nov 1, 14 at 17:35