The American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) was one of the most important forest trees throughout much of the eastern United States and southeasternmost Canada. A rapidly growing deciduous hardwood tree, it reached up to 100-150 ft tall and 10 ft in diameter, and ranged from Maine and southern Ontario to Mississippi, and from the Atlantic coast to the Appalachian Mountains and the Ohio Valley. Once an important hardwood timber tree, American Chestnut is highly susceptible to chestnut blight, caused by an Asian bark fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica, formerly Endothia parasitica) accidentally introduced to America on imported Asiatic chestnut trees. The disease was first noticed on American Chestnut trees in the Bronx Zoo in 1904. While Chinese Chestnuts evolved with the blight and are usually immune, the airborne bark fungus spread 50 miles a year and in a few decades girdled and killed billions of American Chestnuts. New shoots often sprout from the roots when the main stem dies, so the species has not yet become extinct. However, the stump sprouts rarely reach more than 20 ft in height before blight infection returns. It is estimated that the total number of chestnut trees in eastern North America was over 3 billion, and that 25 percent of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were American Chestnut. The number of large surviving American Chestnut trees over 24 inches in diameter within the tree's former range is probably less than 100.

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