The Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) has beautiful leaves, long and regular and very green.
In October they fall, a bit before the leaves of most Oaks. At least in a normal year, this year there will be leaves on the trees around christmas!
Sweet Chestnut leaves are dented, and every dent has a fine point. Decomposition by fungi and bacteria creates little black spots on the leaves.
Many Sweet Chestnut trees end their lives when they are still rather young. To make fence posts you don't need a big diameter. Chestnut wood is nearly imputrescent and is for this reason long lasting. In former times it was used also for stakes in vineyard and to make hoops for barrels.
Many Sweet Chestnut woods in Dordogne were coppiced. Regrowth after felling gives after ten or fifteen years bunches of not too big trunks.
You can see the trees are not in very good health, Sweet Chestive are sensitive to all kinds of diseases, bleeding cancer and others.
This tree is old, planted maybe eighty or sixry years ago. It is surrounded by its progeniture.