Welcome to the challenge for November 9th which is the 3rd one so far after #8 and this post with the original idea.
Warning: Comments may contain spoilers, so only read them once you're ready.
Chestnut
Correct answer! ๐
Nice! I knew it immediately because I see them a lot when I hike. They are very well protected by some extremely sharp spikes.
spoiler
It's not a nut in the botanical sense but if we stay strictly within those boundaries there's not enough variety. ;)
Castanea?
Perfect - Castanea sativa ๐
!Chinquapin!< is the best i can do without cheating
Great! My image is a pretty small castanea sativa (sweet chestnut), while the chinquapin is listed as castanea pumila (dwarf chestnut). So for me (as a non-biologist) that's the same! ๐
Thanks!
I'm from California where we have Golden Chinquapin (chrysolepis chrysophylla) which has fruit that looks the same, and leaves that are very similar (though with golden hairs on the undersides)
Looking them up, they are closely related to castanea. They also have edible seeds but the spiny shell is hard to get open.
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