Castanea sativa

Castanea sativa is a species of deciduous broadleaf flowering plants (in the Fagaceae or Beech family), native to the Balkans, Turkey, northern Iran and perhaps Italy, and naturalised in Britain. It is a large tree of up to 35 metres in height and sometimes enormous girth, and lives for 500–700 years or even longer when cultivated. Its new bark is light grey-brown and smooth; as it ages it becomes darker, with deep vertical fissures that spiral round the trunk. It has large light brown buds in winter, which open in spring into large somewhat glossy leaves, oval in shape with a pointed end, prominently serrated edges (forward-pointing teeth), and veins running forwards in pairs from the central vein, in parallel on each side. In May and June it has long thin yellow catkins, and produces green nutcases with many soft spines in late summer and autumn, each containing several edible brown chestnuts. Although the nutcases and nuts look similar, Castanea sativa is not closely related to Aesculus hippocastanum, the horsechestnut.

Castanea sativa has been cultivated since around 2000 BC in parts of its native range for wood and nuts. As a crop it was introduced to Italy from Greece, and may have been spread by the Romans, but did not become widely grown outside Italy until the Middle Ages. It is planted as forests and grown as coppice, preferring neutral or acidic well-drained soils. The timber is creamy-brown, hard and durable, splits easily, and is used for furniture, veneer, posts, cladding and decking.

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