The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) is a tree up to 35 meters high with a trunk covered with brown, deeply cracked bark and a dense spherical crown. The leaves are single, leathery, stiff, and toothed, often having a pointed appendage at the ends of the teeth. In autumn, the leaves usually turn yellow and are shed for the winter.
Chestnut flowers are dioecious and monoecious. They are collected in spike-shaped inflorescences. They bloom in June-July. The fruit of the chestnut tree are nuts placed in a strongly spiny, spherical covering. The nuts are covered with a thin, brown, shiny skin and ripen in October-November.
Chestnuts are often called maroons.
