No official and coherent data on the distribution of the European chestnut exist despite its wide range of distribution and the important economic role it has played in many countries. In 1997, in the framework of the COST action G4 "Multidisciplinary Chestnut Research", quantitative and qualitative data on chestnut forests were collected, mostly from the National Forest Inventories, in order to provide as sound a picture as possible of this important European resource. A total of 2.25 million hectares of forest dominated by chestnut were recorded, with 1.78 million hectares (79.0 %) cultivated for wood and 0.43 million hectares (19.3 %) for fruit production. The remaining 0.04 million hectares (1.7 %) were classified as irregular structures or without any indication. A further 0.31 million hectares are thought to be mixed forest with chestnut. Three types of chestnut countries can be distinguished : (i) countries with a strong chestnut tradition (e.g. Italy, France, southern Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Greece), where the chestnut stands are cultivated with intensive and characteristic silvicultural systems (coppices and orchards) ; (ii) countries with only a partially developed chestnut tradition due to the country's particular geography (e.g. England) or history (e.g. Croatia, Turkey, Georgia) ; (iii) countries where the chestnut only sporadically occurs (e.g. Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium) or has been recently introduced (e.g. Slovakia, Netherlands). A comparison of the present distribution of traditional silvicultural systems and historical data on chestnut distribution supports the hypothesis that the large-scale chestnut forest plantations are of post-Roman origin. Chestnut cultivation is now at a turning point as the changed needs of society have changed as it has moved away from a rural-based to an industrial and urban-oriented organization. The evolution of the chestnut market in recent decades confirms the potential of this resource for both traditional products and new services and goods related to organic-food and environmentally friendly products.

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-To study the sprouting ability of chestnut stands a 60 year old coppice stand in southern Switzerland was coppiced by removing all live and dead shoots. Two years and four years after coppicing surveys of the newly produced shoots was carried out in order to analyse growth and mortality of the young stand and to verify the factors influencing the sprouting ability. The mortality of stools was only 4%; the number of produced shoots was, with 48 shoots per stool, high and the growth of the shoots was remarkable. Stand structure, stool density and the dimensions of the old stools neither reduced sprouting ability nor influenced the diameter and height growth, but the stump cut quality has a positive effect. Finally, height measurement of the dominant shoot on a stool provides a good indicator for the evaluation of the vigour of the regeneration in a chestnut coppice. chestnut coppice / silviculture / competition / shoots and stool mortality Résumé -Production de rejets et mortalité du châtaignier (Castanea sativa Mill.) après une coupe de taillis. Une étude de cas. Une étude sur la capacité à rejeter de souche du châtaignier (Castanea sativa Mill.) a été effectuée dans un taillis d'environ 60 ans d'âge en Suisse au sud des Alpes. La coupe de taillis s'est faite par l'élimination de tous les arbres vivants et morts. Un inventaire des rejets de souche a été réalisé après deux, respectivement quatre ans afin d'analyser la croissance et la mortalité du nouveau peuplement et de vérifier les facteurs influençant la capacité à rejeter de souche. La mortalité des souches est de 4 %, le nombre de rejets par souche (48) est élevé et la croissance des rejets remarquable. La structure du peuplement, la densité des souches et la dimension des vieilles souches n'ont pas d'influence négative sur la capacité de production des rejets ou sur la croissance en diamètre et en hauteur de ceux-ci. Par contre on observe que la qualité de la coupe de la souche a un effet positif. En conclusion, la mesure de la hauteur du rejet dominant peut servir comme un indicateur valable de la vigueur de la régénération dans un taillis de châtaignier. taillis de châtaignier / sylviculture / compétition / mortalité de souches et des rejets

A large-scale field experiment on the drying behavior of Norway Spruce (Picea abies Karst.) and Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in relation to the felling date was conducted over a period of 24 weeks in order to investigate the existence of variations linked to lunar rhythms, which are mentioned as having a role in many traditional forestry practices. The measured criteria were the water loss from fresh to dry state, the shrinkage linked to this water loss, and the relative density (ratio between the dry density and the initial fresh density) for both sapwood and heartwood in Picea and heartwood in Castanea. In addition to seasonal trends, slight but significant variations with lunar periodicities (both synodic and sidereal; to a much lesser extent tropic) characterize the three investigated criteria. These lunar rhythmicities occur in both Picea and Castanea, in heartwood and sapwood. These results raise new questions and perspectives about a rhythmic character of the wood-water relation.

This paper investigates whether in Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) a relationship exists between anatomical features of earlywood vessels, which may contribute to weakening the wood, and the incidence of ring shake. The study compared two groups of 30 wood discs with and without ring shake, collected in three coppice stands in Southern Switzerland. Shake-prone stems are not characterised by more numerous and wider earlywood vessel lumina than the shake-free ones. Hence the hypothesis that ring shake is favoured by the weakening effect of earlywood cell lumina is rejected.