The tree with the common name " horse chestnut " isn’ta chestnut treeat all . Its botanic name is Aesculus hippocastanum , and it belongs to the Sapindaceae family , which also includes maple . The aboriginal American chestnut tree tree , which is well-nigh out in the United States because of a fungous disease , is Castanea dentata , a member of the Fagaceae , or beech , house . A third tree , the Ohio buckeye ( Aesculus glabra ) , also produce nuts that are sometimes called horse chestnuts .
Habit
Step 1
The horse chestnut tree diagram is the heavy of the three , reaching more than 100 feet tall in a dome shape . In spring , it produces fertile , fragrant , groundwork - foresightful panicles of blank flowers with red dots at their base . The Ohio buckeye grows to 50 feet marvellous and raise unscented pallid - yellow flower clusters in other June . The American chestnut tree reaches about 40 feet tall and blossom in June with 8 - inch - long ament of fragrant , creamy - white blossom .
Leaves
All three trees are deciduous . The American chestnut has lustrous , yellow - green farewell with curving dentition along the edges that grow yellowish in the fall . The seven leaflets of the horse chestnut are bigger and coarser and come out a scant green , turning dark green as they mature . The finely toothed leave-taking of the Ohio buckeye are narrow and intermediate green . They plow gold and orange in the fall .
Nuts
The American chestnut produces sweet , eatable en inside burry burrs check two or three teardrop - shaped seed . Ohio buckeye nuts ripen in previous summertime and early gloaming inside thickheaded , knobby husks . There is normally only one shiny , browned nut inside each . sawhorse chestnuts grow inside thick , green , spiny husks that can contain up to four nuts . Neither buckeyes nor horse chestnuts are edible ; they curb dangerous toxins .
Culture
plant life sawhorse chestnut in full or part sun in well - drained soil with regular wet . It is n’t fussy about dirt type and thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 8 . American chestnut , which thrive in USDA zones 5 through 8 , prefers full sun and moist , well - drained soil . Ohio buckeye grow in USDA zones 3 through 7 in full or part sun and does well in moist , fertile stain . Tree in the genus Aesculus have taproot and are not well transpose .
Habitat
Horse chestnut is native to Southeast Europe , where it grows in assorted forests . The American chestnut is native to the Eastern U.S. hardwood forest . The Ohio buckeye is native to the forests of Ohio , Michigan , Missouri , northern Iowa and Illinois , and east to western Pennsylvania .
Lore
In Britain and Ireland , buck chestnut are attached to strings and used for a children ’s game squall buckeye . In her diary , Anne Frank mention the knight chestnut Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the shopping mall of Amsterdam , which stood until 2010 . The horse chestnut got its name from Native Americans , who decided it resembled the eye of a deer . Since compound times , buckeyes and cavalry chestnuts have been carry as good luck charms .
References
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