American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
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American chestnut grows from southern Ontario east to Maine, south to southwestern Georgia, west to Mississippi, and north to Indiana. It's nearly extinct in its natural habitat due to chestnut blight, which was introduced in 1906. Cultivated trees grow in the western US and other areas where the blight isn't present. It's tolerant of shade conditions and prefers moist, acidic soils.
Fruit: A 2-2.5", 3-cornered, pale brown, shiny nut enclosed in a prickly bur. They typically drop at the first frost of the season.
Flowers: Male flowers are yellowish-white and occur on 4-8" long catkins. Female flowers occur on smaller catkins. Both display in the summer.
Uses: American chestnut is no longer widely commercially used. In areas where chestnut blight is absent, it is used ornamentally or as a shade tree.
Ethnobotany: The wood is very decay-resistant, so before the introduction of chestnut blight it was used for a variety of purposes. The leaves were also used in home medicine to cure whooping cough, treat burns, and sooth inflamed tonsils, and the nuts were produced as a commercial crop.
Importance to wildlife: American chestnut is a larval host for around 125 species of butterflies and moths.
The full American chestnut tree. American chestnuts are rare in their native range due to chestnut blight, but root systems still send up shoots. Trees that come up from old roots and stumps can grow up to 20 feet tall and occasionally produce a few nuts before the blight kills them.
A single leaf on an American chestnut. Leaves are 13-25 cm long, straight-veined, coarsely toothed with forward-curving teeth, and green and glabrous on both sides.
The underside of an American chestnut leaf, showing the glabrous petiole and leaf.
The leaf arrangement on an American chestnut. Leaves are simple and alternate.
The buds on an American chestnut. Buds are 4-6 mm long and ovoid with 2-3 visible scales. The terminal bud is often absent.
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