Medincinal Monday - American Chestnut Tree the Redwoods of the East

The majestic American Chestnut Tree was once common throughout the forests of eastern North America, providing sweet, meaty chestnuts for humans and wildlife. American Chestnut trees once grew prolifically across the east coast with an estimated four billion trees blanketing the landscape from Maine to Florida.  These huge and ancient trees could grow up to 100 feet high and nine feet around. In addition to providing wood and shade, these trees also provided edible nuts.  Native Americans found many uses for this tree, which is rare in the wild today.

Winslow Homer - The Chestnut tree (1878)

About American Chestnut Tree

The American Chestnut tree is a large monoecious deciduous tree of the beech family and is native to eastern North America.  This hardwood tree grows rapidly and was one of the most common trees found in the northeast. As compared to its European cousins, the American Chestnut has larger and more widely spaced saw-teeth leaves and hairless twigs and branches. The American Chestnut is self-compatible and requires two trees for pollination.  It is also a prolific bearer of nuts.  There are usually three nuts enclosed in a spiny green burr that is lined in a tan velvet-like material.  The nuts develop during the summer and fall to the ground after the first frost.

A fungus imported from Asia infected chestnut trees, the first chestnut was thought to be infected in the 1890s and the first blight was reported in 1904 in New York's Botanical Garden. By 1910, panic spread as the population of chestnut trees continued to die.  This airborne fungus killed up to three billion American Chestnut trees. There are many efforts today to breed blight-resistant chestnut trees by the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation and the Canadian Chestnut Council.

William Henry Holmes 1846-1933

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

Native American communities on the East Coast used various parts of the American Chestnut to treat ailments such as whooping cough, heart conditions and chafed skin.  The Cherokee made a cough syrup from the leaves of the American Chestnut Tree, they also made an infusion of year-old leaves that were taken for heart trouble.  The Iroquois ground the wood of this tree into a powder to use on the chafed skin of babies and the meat of the nut was ground and combined with bear grease and used to treat hair. Another use was to mix the bark of this tree into dog food to treat worms. The Mohegan's made tea from the leaves to treat rheumatism and colds. An infusion of leaves was also used to treat whooping cough.

Chestnuts were roasted, ground into flour for cakes and bread and stewed into puddings and soups.

Chestnut Trees at Bolton, Lake George by Samuel Lancaster

Did You Know...

In colonial America, chestnut was a preferred species for log cabins, especially the bottom rot-prone foundation logs. Later posts, poles, flooring, and railroad ties were all made from chestnut lumber.

Chestnut ripening coincided with the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season, and turn-of-the-century newspaper articles often showed train cars overflowing with chestnuts rolling into major cities to be sold fresh or roasted. 


Chestnuts are unique among nuts because they are high in carbs, not oil.