Chestnut Tree

The chestnut tree (Hebrew 'armon, meaning naked or stripped — referring to the tree's smooth, peeling bark) is mentioned in two Old Testament passages. In Genesis 30:37, Jacob peeled rods of chestnut (and other trees) to place before the flocks at their watering troughs in a folk-breeding practice aimed at influencing the coloring of the offspring. Ezekiel 31:8 includes the chestnut tree among the great trees of the forest of Lebanon as a measure of comparison for Assyria's greatness. The identification with the European chestnut is uncertain; many scholars now prefer the plane tree (Platanus orientalis), which grows along streambeds in the Levant and has conspicuously peeling bark.