Hersteller:thompson-morgan.com

Beschreibung:
Family: Hippocastanaceae - Buckeye Family
Flowering Period: April, May

Stems: Erect; bark of young trees smooth, pale yellow-brown; bark of mature trees scaly or flat-ridged, dark brown.

Leaves: Opposite, deciduous, palmately compound, stalk 4 to 6.5 inches long, enlarged at base; leaflets 5-11, usually 7, elliptic, lanceolate or egg-shaped, 3 to 6 inches long, .6 to 2.4 inches wide; upper surface glabrous, shiny, dark green; lower surface paler, pubescent on veins to minutely hairy or woolly; margins entire at base, sharply toothed above; tip sharp-pointed or tapering to narrow point; leaflet stalks to 2/5 inch long. The number, shape and size of the leaflets can be quite variable.

Inflorescences: Panicle, cylindrical or pyramidal, 4 to 6 inches long, terminating main branches.

Flowers: Calyx broadly bell-shaped, 1/8 to 1/3 inch long, yellowish-green, 5-lobed; lobes, uneq
ual, blunt, pink-tipped; corolla 2/5 to 7/10 inch long; petals 4, pale yellow, outside hairy; upper 2 petals erect or curved, with 2 orange spots inside; 2 lateral petals slightly shorter, with orange streak inside; stamens 7, curved, 1/2 to 4/5 inch long, extending beyond corolla; filaments hairy near orange anthers; style greenish, stigma red.

Fruits: Unevenly spherical, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, rust-colored; husk leathery, spiny, divided into 3-4 sections; seeds 1-4, irregularly spherical, nut-like, about 1 inch in diameter, smooth, glossy, dark brown with large, pale scar.
Habitat: Stream banks, rocky wooded hillsides, lowland woods, and thickets in prairie ravines; moist, often calcareous soil.

Distribution: East 1/2 of Kansas.

Toxicity: The seeds are mildly poisonous with swine particularly susceptable. The leaves poisonous to livestock. Clinical signs include staggering, trembling and legs splayed out like a sawhorse. These symptoms typically last 24 hours.

Uses: Native Americans ate the seeds after boiling or roasting. The seeds were ground and thrown into streams to poison the fish. There was also a superstition that carrying a seed in pocket would alleviate rheumatism.

Comments: Aesculus is an ancient name for a nut-bearing tree in Europe, glabra refers to the smooth leaves, and arguta "sharp-toothed" describes the leaf margins. Western buckeye fruit appears in September.