There are two Spanish chestnuts on West 20th Avenue, and the heritage-listed one is the smaller. The city's street-tree inventory gives it a trunk 104.1 centimetres in diameter, about 3.3 metres round, and 19.8 metres of height; the unlisted chestnut a block away at number 2089 is thicker, at 124.5 centimetres. Fame and girth do not always travel together. The city cannot quite agree where the listed one lives. Its heritage register records a Spanish Chestnut at 2001 West 20th Avenue. Its separate street-tree survey records a Spanish chestnut at 2003, one house number along, and finds no other chestnut at this end of the block. Almost certainly the same tree, counted twice by two departments working from two sets of paperwork. Almost certainly is the honest phrase: this pass could not settle it on the ground. Castanea sativa is the sweet chestnut of Europe, which Vancouver's register files under its other name. This one grows on a city boulevard on the public right-of-way, free to walk up to at any hour. In October the spiny burs split and the nuts come down, which is the moment worth timing the walk for. Nobody has recorded its age. Neither city dataset carries a planting date and no independent account of the tree turned up. If you have lived on the block long enough to know, tell us.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
2003 West 20th Avenue, Vancouver, BC (heritage register gives 2001 W 20th Ave, one house number off; see verify_notes)
You can recognise it by the long saw-toothed chestnut leaves and a trunk 3.3 metres round, on the boulevard outside 2003 West 20th Avenue. The street's other chestnut, a block away at 2089, is thicker.
Free. Public boulevard tree on the City of Vancouver street right-of-way, reachable and viewable from the public sidewalk at any time.
Residential street in Arbutus Ridge on Vancouver's west side; nearest bus service runs along nearby arterials (Arbutus Street or West King Edward Avenue), a short walk away.
In bloomIn fruit
October, when the spiny burs split and the chestnuts come down
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: City of Vancouver Heritage Register (Landscape Resources, Trees), no. 2526
- City of Vancouver Heritage Register, category 'LANDSCAPE RESOURCES Trees', heritage_register_id 2526, common name 'Spanish Chestnut', 2001 W 20TH A…
- City of Vancouver public-trees open dataset, address '2003 W 20TH AV' (one house number from the register's '2001'), common_name SPANISH CHESTNUT,…
- opendata.vancouver.ca