Nanjing Special

‘Nanjing Special’ (C. mollissima) is a seedling selection of M. Nave originating from a seedlot from the Nanjing Botanical Garden collected in 1993. It produces small nuts with superb flavor, and M. Nave describes it as one of the best tasting C. mollissima nuts available in the United States. Its profile is only mildly sweet, but it has a very rare complexity of flavors. Nuts drop early and continue into mid-season. The nut color is dull brown and fades quickly and unevenly; therefore, it is not a pretty nut after a few storage days. The tree is an erect grower (Nave, 2017). Greater evaluation in the East and Midwest is needed. ‘Nanjing Special’ ramets were introduced to the UMCA repository in 2020.