CHESTNUT fruit of chestnut (Castanea sativa); with achene pericarp leathery texture and brown; hairless and shiny outside. On the back streaks are present more or less marked; in particular in the variety of the group of the browns. These morphological elements are important for granting varietal. The achenes are enclosed; in number from 1 to 3; inside a casing buckthorn; commonly called hedgehog. At maturity; the hedgehog opens splitting into four valves: in some cases; opens completely dropping the fruits; in other less open and comes off the branch with the fruits still inside. The chestnut has played in the past an important role in the rural economy; being used for the collection of the fruits for the human and animal nutrition; for the timber; for the extraction of tannin is intended to tanneries; and in apiculture for the production of a honey with a distinctive bitter aftertaste. Photography Patrizia Piccini. Ponzone (AL); October 2015