Chestnut Trees or ???

Mountain

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Been seeing a few chestnuts in the fall on one of my local trails. Today I remembered to check trees while they were covered in leaves. Can anyone verify these are chestnuts trees, especially the big one?

Smaller one about 10' tall-
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And the big one-

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there are several types of chestnut in new england. the rarest is the american chestnut, the edible one. the inedible one is the horse chestnut but is uncommon. the most common is the chinese chestnut (not sure on edibility). and there are others.

you may have to wait for the fruit to bear before you can identify. look for ditrious around the tree, maybe you can find the husks/shells and get more identifiable traits.
 
First one most likely a chestnut, probably American chestnut. Chestnuts readily hybridize with other types of chestnut so it can be difficult to tell, especially without detailed observations over the course of the growing season.

Not sure on the second one. Have you seen it in flower? What do the nuts look like? Are the leaves as deeply toothed as those on the first one, or are they more scalloped? Do the teeth curve as they come to a point? Do the twigs have some elliptical yellow spots, small round white spots, or no spots? What color are the twigs and the young twigs?
 
Been seeing a few chestnuts in the fall on one of my local trails. Today I remembered to check trees while they were covered in leaves. Can anyone verify these are chestnuts trees, especially the big one?
...

They're Castanea Dentata (commonly known as American Chestnut)

Careful, in some parts of Mass it is illegal to move vegetation (leaves, flowers, sticks, etc) from one property to another!
 
The first picture of the leaves is definitely an American chestnut which are actually super common but rarely get large enough to reproduce.
Horse chestnut is not a true chestnut, different genus.
All true chestnut species are edible.
I’d need better pictures of the leaves and first years wood to ID the other blurry tree pictures
 
Wow! We have some tree nuts here @nes (hah, tree nuts…PUN!)

I really want to get better at tree ID since I now own 72 heavily wooded acres in southwestern Appalachia.

Any good comprehensive resources any of you can recommend?
Identifying Trees of the East: An All-Season Guide to Eastern North America Identifying Trees of the East: An All-Season Guide to Eastern North America: Williams, Michael D.: 9780811718301: Books - Amazon
This is the book I use. Easy to use and breaks it down into identifiable categories.
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Wow! We have some tree nuts here @nes (hah, tree nuts…PUN!)

I really want to get better at tree ID since I now own 72 heavily wooded acres in southwestern Appalachia.

Any good comprehensive resources any of you can recommend?
Plantnet app. I really like it. I wouldn't take each result as the gospel. But it will get you going in the right direction. And if you do use it, please be 100% sure before you click "confirm" when you are IDing plants. Incorrect results skew the algorithms.
 
Thanks all. The big one may indeed be a chestnut oak- I'll have to keep an eye on it and maybe get a closer look at leaves. There are definitely some nut bearing American chestnuts as I always see the husks late summer and fall. I think the smaller ones are still too young / too small but I think there are some mid-size ones surviving long enough to bear nuts.

No horse chestnuts in the area. There were some near me back in my SoCal days and I'm very familiar with them.

I have a couple chestnuts from the NES karma. I have a clearing in my back 40 where they will go as soon as the tree protectors deliver- should be tomorrow or maybe Sunday.
 
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