The sweet chestnut is originally native to Asia Minor. The deciduous tree grows to a height of up to 30 m and can live for over 1,000 years. The sweet chestnut is not only valued as an ornamental tree, but also for its nutritious and tasty fruit, the chestnut. The yellow, up to 15 cm long, male catkin flowers produce trimethylamine and thus a rather unpleasant, fish-like "scent"; the female flowers are inconspicuous, greenish at the base of the male catkins. The flowers of the chestnut are often used as bee pasture. They bloom from May to July.
The wood, which is very weather-resistant, is used, for example, in the production of barrels, in shipbuilding or for the manufacture of furniture.
The leaves of the sweet chestnut are used phytotherapeutically, see Castaneae folium.