American Chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) survive today in a few disjunct and isolated populations, including in the Florida Panhandle, in Cumberland County, North Carolina around the city of Fayetteville, and near the Tri-Point of Sumter, Marion, and Lake counties in Florida around Lake Weir and the city of Belleview. Their leaves are long and canoe-shaped, lined with crashing wave–like teeth that curl gracefully along the serrated edges. The stems are brown rather than greenish and lack any hairiness, distinguishing them clearly from Chinese Chestnut (Castanea mollissima). Unlike some other species, American Chestnut leaves are not fuzzy or pale white on the undersides, and they lack the heavy gloss or leathery thickness found in Southern Magnolia leaves. If a chestnut tree has shiny, thick, magnolia-like foliage, it is not an American Chestnut. Historically, Qarsherskiyan Creole communities in central Florida, the Panhandle, and the Sandhills of North Carolina relied on the American Chestnut for its strong, rot-resistant wood, using it to craft canoes, build cabins, and provide a vital source of food for both people and livestock.

So, contrary to popular beliefs, American Chestnut trees do naturally occur as natives of the Florida Peninsula North Carolina coastal plains, with native populations of American Chestnut surviving in isolation in disjunct parts of their native range near Ocala, Florida and near Fort Bragg in North Carolina. American Chestnut trees are not confined to the Appalachian Mountains and can be found in the humid subtropical climates of the southeastern Atlantic Coastal Plains in rare pockets.