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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-544
American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
American chestnut once carried the sweetest nut of any chestnut species and covered more than 200 million acres of eastern forest, but an introduced Asian blight fungus has made mature trees functionally extinct across that range: the root system survives and keeps sending up sprouts, but the sprouts are reinfected and die back before they ever bear a crop. Anyone growing it today needs blight-resistant backcross stock bred from repeated crosses with Chinese chestnut, since pure American seedlings normally die before fruiting. Its huge, fragrant flower display hosts more butterfly and moth species than almost any other tree in its genus.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 5.5–6
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 50–75 ft
- Mature spread
- 50–75 ft
- Plant spacing
- 30–40 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Alligator Juniper
Juniperus deppeana
Alligator juniper is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen conifer named for its thick, deeply furrowed, plated bark that resembles reptile…
Canopy · USDA 6–9
Almond
Prunus amygdalus
Almond flowers earlier than almost any other cultivated tree, which is its biggest weakness as much as its gift to early pollinators - a warm…
Canopy · USDA 7–9
American Basswood
Tilia americana
American Basswood is famous for the bees - mature trees hum audibly for several feet around when they bloom in early summer, giving one of…
Canopy · USDA 3–8
American Beech
Fagus grandifolia
American Beech is a slow, long-lived shade tree that can establish and eventually fruit even under an existing forest canopy, unlike almost…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Elm
Ulmus americana
American Elm is a native stream-bank tree that grows into a 60 to 80 foot vase-shaped shade crown and, once mature, becomes one of the…
Canopy · USDA 3–9
American Holly
Ilex opaca
American holly is a slow-growing evergreen understory tree with spiny, leathery leaves and bright red winter berries that at least eighteen…
Canopy · USDA 5–9
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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