Castanea dentata

The American chestnut is a large tree in the beech or Fagaceae family and is native to eastern North America. It used to comprise up to 25% of the canopy in many stands in the northeastern U.S. and in southern Ontario, but all but a few of the trees were wiped out by the chestnut blight in the early 1900s, although stands still remain outside these regions.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, oblong to panciolate, to 23 cm long and 6 cm broad, taper-pointed and sharp-toothed. They tend to be on average slightly shorter and broader and hairless compared to the sweet chestnut (C. sativa). The species can be best identified by the larger and more widely spaced saw-teeth on the edges of its leaves ('dentata' being Latin for 'toothed').
• The chestnut is monoecious, producing many small, pale green (nearly white) male flowers along 15–20 cm long creamy yellow catkins. The female parts are found near base of the catkins (near twig) and appear in late spring to early summer.
• Fruit is enclosed in a spiny husk up to 6 cm in diameter, with 1–3 edible brown nuts inside with white basal areas.