PLANTS OF HORSECHESTNUT - AESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

Used as a shade tree and for environmental forestry planting.

It grows to 36 m tall, with a domed crown of stout branches, on old trees the outer branches often pendulous with curled-up tips. The leaves are opposite and palmately compound. The flowers are usually white with a small red spot; they are produced in spring in erect panicles. Usually only 1-5 fruit develop on each panicle; the fruit is a green, softly spiky capsule containing one nut-like seeds called conkers or horse-chestnuts. Native to a small area in the mountains of the Balkans in southeast Europe.