Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa)
Original title: Castanheiro (Castanea sativa)
The sweet chestnut, grown in Madeira since settlement for its nuts and timber, with notes on giant specimens and an annual production of about 4,000 hectolitres.
A member of the Cupuliferae, cultivated in Madeira since the island began to be settled. Some years ago a chestnut tree could be seen at Achada do Campanário whose trunk measured 10.50 m in circumference, and at the locality of Fontes (‘springs’), in Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’), we believe another still exists whose trunk measures 11.30 m, also in circumference. The chestnut, much less common today than formerly, produces besides its nuts, which are eaten locally, a good timber with many uses. Although it is characteristic of the 2nd botanical zone of Madeira, which runs from 150 to 200 metres, it can also grow near the coast: for many years a specimen stood in the Fort of São Lourenço (St Lawrence) that never failed to bear fruit in due season. Annual chestnut production in Madeira is around 4,000 hectolitres.
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Place
Places mentioned · 04
- Achada do Campanário
Ribeira Brava. Site of a chestnut tree with a trunk 10.5 m in circumference.
Site of a chestnut tree with a trunk 10.5 m in circumference.
- Fontes
Ribeira Brava. Site of a chestnut tree with a trunk 11.3 m in circumference.
Fontes is a site in the parish of Ribeira Brava. The Elucidário records a chestnut tree there with a trunk 11.3 m in circumference.
- Fortress of São Lourenço
Funchal. A fruiting chestnut long grew there, showing the tree can live near the coast.
The São Lourenço fortress in Funchal was begun as a simple bastion under the fourth and fifth captains-donatary and completed by the reign of D. Sebastião; its main entrance faces the Largo da Restauração. It later served as a palace and housed the Funchal meteorological station, and the republican flag was raised there on 6 and 7 October 1910. The Elucidário also records its heraldic emblems, a 1635 inscription, an old chapel of São Lourenço and the loss of its statue of the saint in 1911.
- Ribeira Brava
Parish containing the Fontes locality.
Ribeira Brava is one of Madeira's oldest parishes, named after its violent stream, with a town, port and quay. The Elucidário covers its collegiate church and its paintings, its Franciscan convent and chapels, and its São Pedro festival with a boat and sword dance. It also records riots against the metric system and deaths when troops fired on the people during the 1884 election.