Castanea sativa, the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived deciduous tree, it produces an edible seed, the chestnut, which has been used in cooking since ancient times.
The tree is to be distinguished from the horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum, to which it is only distantly related. The horse chestnut bears superficially ...