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A large tree. It grows up to 35 m high. The trunk can be 100 cm across. The tree loses its leaves during the year. The leaves are alternate and simple. They taper gradually to both ends. They are 15-28 cm long. The leaves are yellowish green. There are 15-20 parallel veins on each side of the leaf. These end in a tooth with a bristle. The flowers are separately male and female on the same tree. The male or pollen flowers are on short stalks in erect catkins. These are 12-20 cm long. They are in the axils of leaves. The female or seed flowers occur singly or in clusters or 2 or 3 at the base of some of the male flowers. The fruit is a nut. These occur in small clusters of 1-5 within a spiny husk. This is 5-8 cm across and splits into 4 parts. Each but is oval and flat on one side. It is pointed. The surface is brown and smooth. The nuts are edible.
Tree to 30 m; lvs oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely and sharply serrate with ascending or incurved teeth, glabrous or nearly so, short-petioled; staminate catkins to 20 cm; mature involucres 5–6 mm thick, with very numerous spines 1 cm or more, the nuts 1.5–2 cm, usually 2 or 3 together, flattened on one or two sides; 2n=24. Original range from s. Me. to se. Mich., s. to Del., Ky., and s. Ill., and along the mts. to Ala., usually in acid upland soils; now nearly exterminated by blight.
