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Sweet chestnut

Castanea sativa · Fagaceae · all Castanea records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Mediterranean France / Provence; New Zealand
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AL, DC, KY, MA, NY, PA.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 1 sourced range or established record; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness: No hardiness value is normalized.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: 1 ecological invasive report; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) — Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
Grows in: AL, DC, KY, MA, NY, PA
Rated in: Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Mediterranean France / Provence +1
Uses: fruit
Family: Fagaceae
Evidence: 27 cited sources

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

1

exact source area

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

1 introduced source area · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

New York (NY)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Guía de pirojardinería: suitable inside or outside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its recommendation)
Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 202…: Natural; Table 1 and deposited raw workbook [macalister-2025-leaf-flammability] (mid-scale rating)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (1)

Inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes (Valette 1990) — INRA Station de Sylviculture méditerranéenne, Avignon (Revue Forestière Française XLII) · 1990 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: inra-tree

“INRA inflammability note 5 of 5 (July-September maximum)” · score 5 (inra-0-5)

Monthly inflammability notes May-April: 0, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (epiradiator tests, INRA Avignon).

Source wording: “extrêmement inflammable”

Mid-scale / conditional (2)

Low Flammability Plants directory — Fire and Emergency New Zealand (plant flammability testing at Lincoln University) · 2026 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: lincoln-nz-tree

“Moderate/high flammability”

Moderate/high flammability classification.
Time to extinguish the exotic flame: Lessons from the 2021 Cape Town fire — South African Journal of Botany / University of Cape Town · South African Journal of Botany 184:1163-1173 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: independent (UCT post-Table-Mountain-fire study)

“N/A”

Official-workbook means across 50 leaf trials: fresh ignition 2.869 s, fresh sustainability 22.402 s, dry ignition 0.742 s, dry sustainability 7.262 s, and combustibility 74.744 mg DW s-1. Published Table 1 observation for the 2021 fire: N/A.

Listed without a rating (23)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

23 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “energy flux (kW/m²): 370.5” · score 370.5 (FLAMITS — energy flux (kW/m²))
  
  FLAMITS record 1188; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Chung2010-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2010: Chung, Y. J. (2010). Comparison of combustion properties of native wood species used for fire pots in Korea. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 16, 15-19.
- “total smoke release (m²/m²): 213.6” · score 213.6 (FLAMITS — total smoke release (m²/m²))
  
  FLAMITS record 1192; Consumability measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Chung2010-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2010: Chung, Y. J. (2010). Comparison of combustion properties of native wood species used for fire pots in Korea. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 16, 15-19.
- “smoke specific extinction area (m²/kg): 75.63” · score 75.63 (FLAMITS — smoke specific extinction area (m²/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 1196; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Chung2010-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2010: Chung, Y. J. (2010). Comparison of combustion properties of native wood species used for fire pots in Korea. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 16, 15-19.
- “flaming duration (s): 488” · score 488 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1200; Sustainability measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Chung2010-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2010: Chung, Y. J. (2010). Comparison of combustion properties of native wood species used for fire pots in Korea. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 16, 15-19.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4721.98” · score 4721.98 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 3918; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Gillon1997-1; sampling june to september. Primary study Gillon1997: Gillon, D., Hernando, C., Valette, J.-C., & Joffre, R. (1997). Fast estimation of the calorific values of forest fuels by near infrared-reflectance spectroscopy. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 27, 760-765.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4170.43” · score 4170.43 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9830; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling spring. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 1281.04” · score 1281.04 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9831; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling summer. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4164.24” · score 4164.24 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9832; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling autumn. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 1303.72” · score 1303.72 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9833; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling winter. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4091.45” · score 4091.45 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9834; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling spring. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 2033.91” · score 2033.91 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9835; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling summer. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4455.23” · score 4455.23 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9836; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling autumn. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 1750.23” · score 1750.23 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 9837; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device calorimeter; site Nunez1996-1; sampling winter. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “flammability value: 4” · score 4 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 9853; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Nunez1996-1; sampling spring. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “flammability value: 5” · score 5 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 9862; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Nunez1996-1; sampling summer. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “flammability value: 5” · score 5 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 9871; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Nunez1996-1; sampling autumn. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “flammability value: 4” · score 4 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 9880; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Nunez1996-1; sampling winter. Primary study Nunez1996: Nunez-Regueira, L., Anon, J. A. R., & Castineiras, J. P. (1996). Calorific values and flammability of forest species in Galicia. Coastal and hillside zones. Bioresource Technology, 57, 283-289.
- “flammability value: 0” · score 0 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 13338; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Valette1990-1; sampling june to september. Primary study Valette1990: Valette, J.-C. (1990). Flammabilities of Mediterranean forest species. Effects on the combustibility of the forest communities inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes. Conséquences sur la combustibilité des formations forestières. Revue forestière française, 42, 76-92.
- “flammability value: 5” · score 5 (FLAMITS — flammability value)
  
  FLAMITS record 13339; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Valette1990-1; sampling june to september. Primary study Valette1990: Valette, J.-C. (1990). Flammabilities of Mediterranean forest species. Effects on the combustibility of the forest communities inflammabilités des espèces forestières méditerranéennes. Conséquences sur la combustibilité des formations forestières. Revue forestière française, 42, 76-92.
- “energy flux (kW/m²): 160.7” · score 160.7 (FLAMITS — energy flux (kW/m²))
  
  FLAMITS record 19210; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Chung2008-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2008: Chung, Y. J., & Spearpoint, M. (2008). Combustion properties of native Korean wood species. International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 9, 11825.
- “flaming duration (s): 488” · score 488 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 19214; Sustainability measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Chung2008-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2008: Chung, Y. J., & Spearpoint, M. (2008). Combustion properties of native Korean wood species. International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 9, 11825.
- “smoke specific extinction area (m²/kg): 31.67” · score 31.67 (FLAMITS — smoke specific extinction area (m²/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 19218; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Chung2008-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2008: Chung, Y. J., & Spearpoint, M. (2008). Combustion properties of native Korean wood species. International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 9, 11825.
- “calorific value (kcal/kg): 3026.17” · score 3026.17 (FLAMITS — calorific value (kcal/kg))
  
  FLAMITS record 19222; Combustibility measurement; plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Chung2008-1; sampling ND. Primary study Chung2008: Chung, Y. J., & Spearpoint, M. (2008). Combustion properties of native Korean wood species. International Journal on Engineering Performance-Based Fire Codes, 9, 11825.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Post oak
Quercus stellata

Red oak
Quercus rubra

Basswood
Tilia americana

Red maple
Acer rubrum

Wild black cherry
Prunus serotina

White oak
Quercus alba

Fire-resistant trees listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Castanea sativa (Sweet chestnut). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/castanea-sativa/. Last verified 2026-08-23.