Castanea sativa sweet chestnut
Sweet chestnuts feel like native trees, but this is perhaps because they have been in the UK for so long. In fact they are native to southern Europe and Asia Minor, but were brought here by the Romans, who planted them across the empire. Sweet chestnut is loved for its edible nuts, collected as they fall in autumn and delicious roasted. In parts of the Mediterranean such as Corsica where it is mountainous and impossible to grow wheat, sweet chestnuts are grown in vast numbers and the nuts ground down to make flour, which has become a staple in the local diet. In the UK the tree is found in woodlands and parkland, and is particularly common in the southeast of England, where it was once grown in large numbers and coppiced for poles and for charcoal production. Sweet chestnuts can live for up to 700 years.
1 Bark
The young bark is greyish-purple and scored with vertical cracks. As the tree ages, these develop into fissures that appear to spiral around the trunk.
2 Leaves
The leaves are long (up to 20cm when mature), dark green and serrated. They have a prominent fold at the midrib and veins running parallel to each other.
3 Nutcases/nuts
Around October, the edible nuts fall to the ground in green cases covered in long, bendy spines. The casings are distinct from those covering the horse chestnut’s conkers, which have short, hard spines.
4 Flowers/catkins
Sweet chestnut trees produce both male and female flowers. In June or July, long yellow male catkins appear, with green rosettelike female flowers at their base.
5 Silhouette
Sweet chestnuts grow to around 35m in height, and have a broad, rounded crown.