Part of
🌰︎ chestnut / chinkapin genus Castanea
in
beech / oak family Fagaceae
in
bayberry / beech / birch / oak / walnut order Fagales.
Native to eastern 🇺🇸 USA and very-southern 🇨🇦 Canada.
🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48)
(color key),
🗺 map (North America, Central America), 
🗺 map (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Formerly abundant and a major component of the Eastern hardwood forest, this tree is almost extinct in the wild, having been killed by a bark fungal disease
chestnut blight Cryphonectria parasitica.
Although I see that my
local Conservation District
is selling bare-root trees of this species, but grown from in-state survivors of the blight, known to be resistant. Worth a try, to resurrect this amazing piece of Americana!
Guess it is working —
"The American chestnut makes a comeback." The Suffolk Times. 2023-11-13.
Another effort.
"The Problem With Darling 58: The fight to save America's iconic tree has become a civil war." New York Magazine. June 8, 2024.
The disease also impacts (not quite as hard) this tree's closely-related (even shares most of its home range) sister-species
Allegheny chinquapin Castanea pumila.
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Castanea hosts caterpillars of 129 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.