Sweet chestnut - Castanea sativa

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Sweet chestnut - Castanea sativa
© Susan A Tindall

This is an elegant, tall tree with spiral fissured bark. The leaves are remarkably long and toothed. It produces long, lacy, delicate yellow catkins in early summer, which have a distinctive musk smell attractive to insects. The brown nuts form inside green husks that look a little like spiny hedgehogs.

Sweet chestnut is a beautiful tree but too large for most modern gardens. Chestnuts are commonly eaten around Christmas either roasted or as a stuffing. The tree has been grown in Britain for perhaps two thousand years and it behaves like a native tree in woods on acid soil in south-east England, where it was traditionally coppiced to provide wood for palings.

Animals

Badger, Dormouse, Grey squirrel, Jay

Foliage	Green
Flower	Yellow, April to May
Moisture	(Average)
Sunlight	(Full sun)
Origin	Non-native