Chilean Bellota, are the nuts edible?

There are a lot of red flags here:

1. Nuts rain down during the "nut-raining season", but are not scooped up by squirrels or park visitors to eat. They are swept up and thrown out by the city gardeners.
2. There is hardly anything written about this tree. The tree label says it is Cryptocarya rubra and the PlantList says that is an accepted name.
3. A common name for the tree is "Chilean Soap Tree". :OP

What is it called? The original PlantList failed us years ago. The new version of the Plantlist, the WFO Plantlist says that it was described in 1851 as Bellota miersii. Chances are good that it's called something else now, but what? Searching for Cryptocarya miersii in BHL shows up nothing. I have recently been told that it is Beilschmiedia miersii, AKA "hog plum." Wikipedia says that it occurs with the Chilean wine palms, so our trees must feel at home.

How to pronouce Bellota

My good guesses were wrong. Bay-yota like llama (yama). Bell-ota like a bell. Good try but not right.

My Chilean classmate said that the name (in Chile) is prounounced "Be-jjjota". She recognized it immediately when she visited for a sketch class. I asked her if you can eat the nuts. Her mother lives in Quillota (pronounced Qui-jjjota) and she asked her mom. Yes, you can eat them roasted, which must take care of the saponins. Recipes anyone?

The Bellota is in the Lauraceae family - that family with interesting members - avocado, California Bay Laurel, Cinnamomum. The California Bay Laural has similar looking nuts which are also roasted.

Where did this strange tree come from?

Distinguished horticulturalists described it in 2018 as having a "pancake trunk" - looking like it is made from a stack of pancakes. Its branches look like an octopus showing off its unusually muscular arms. It has a tiny peep hole where branches fused together. It is altogether delightful.

The old Trees of the Berkeley Campus book, 1976, says that there is a specimen on the bank of Strawberry Creek south of Wellman Hall. It was thought that Rixford imported the seed and it was planted about 1876. I have have walked all around there looking for it, but in 1976 it was damaged by frost. So it must have kicked the bucket.

The Seed Bulletin, 1898, says that the seeds came from a Niles tree (perhaps from the Shinn Ranch?) which was originally obtained from G.P. Rixford. (Rixford, if you may remember, had a big role in the Smyrna fig caprification story. James Shinn was given credit for importing the first Blastophaga wasps.)

What were the seeds from the San Francisco Bulletin?

Tangible Memories (p. 57) says that E.P. Rixford decided to award new subscribers to his newspaper with seeds or cuttings. Did he mean G.P. Rixford?

What else was in that box of plant goodies? Where is there a 1871 SF Bulletin? An SF Librarian says it might have been called the Daily Bulletin.

If the Shinn family planted a Chilean Bellota in 1871, could they have nuts 27 years later? The Exchange Seed List says it fruits when 15 feet or more in height. Nuts as easy to sprout as buckeyes. They certainly sprout in the Japanese Garden at the park.

Some more sorting out is needed.

References

• Distribution of Seeds and Plants, Seed Bulletin 1898-1899, E.J. Wickson, 1898
• University Distribution of Seeds and Plants, Pacific Rural Press, Volume 56, Number 25, 17 December 1898, E.J. Wickson
• "Plants Worth Trying in California" Report to the State Horticultural Society on Baron v. Mueller's "Select Extra—Tropical Plants," eligible for industrial culture, or acclimatization, etc., with additions and comments by Herman Behr, M. D., and W. G. Klee. Pacific Rural Press, Volume 21, Number 20, 14 May 1881 (no Bellota, just interesting).
• Select Extra-Tropical Plants
• Search for Botanical Specimens. G.P. Rixford, what is listed at Harvard
• New "Trees of Berkeley Campus book", available online.
• Is this its current name? Beilschmiedia miersii? I have no idea! (wiki page)
• Listen to Bill and Nelson talk about our Chilean Bellota at Shinn Park:

December 10, 1881