From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Ancient Greek playwright, see
Aeschylus.
The genus Aesculus (pronounced /ˈɛskjuləs/[1] or
/ˈaɪskjuləs/)
comprises 13-19 species of woody trees and shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere, with 6 species native
to North America
and 7-13 species native to Eurasia; there are also several hybrids.
Species are deciduous or evergreen. This genus has traditionally
been treated in the ditypic family Hippocastanaceae along with
Billia,[2] but
recent phylogenetic analysis of morphological[3] and
molecular data[4] has led
to this family, along with the Aceraceae (Maples and Dipteronia), being included in the
soapberry family (Sapindaceae).
Linnaeus named the genus Aesculus
after the Roman name for an edible acorn. The Eurasian species are
known as horse chestnuts while the North American
species are called buckeyes.
Some are also called white chestnut or red
chestnut (as in some of the Bach flower remedies). In Britain,
they are sometimes called conker trees because of their
link with the game of conkers, played with the seeds, also called
conkers.
Description
Aesculus are woody plants from 4 to 36m tall (depending
on species), and have stout shoots with resinous, often sticky,
buds; opposite, palmately divided leaves, often very large (to
65 cm across in the Japanese Horse Chestnut Aesculus
turbinata). Flowers showy, insect-pollinated, with four or
five petals fused into a lobed
corolla tube, arranged in a panicle
inflorescence. Flowering starts after 80–110 growing degree days. The fruit matures to a
capsule
(fruit), 2–5 cm diameter, usually globose containing 1-3
seeds (often erroneously called a nut (fruit)) per capsule. Capsules
containing more than one seed result in seeds being flat on one
side. The point of attachment of the seed in the capsule (hilum)
shows as a large circular whitish scar. The capsule epidermis has
"spines" (botanically: prickles) in some species, other capsules
are warty or smooth; capsule splits into three sections to release
the seeds.[5][6][7]
The species of Aesculus include:
Cultivation
The most familiar member of the genus worldwide is the Common Horse Chestnut Aesculus
hippocastanum, native to a small area of the Balkans in southeast Europe, but widely cultivated
throughout the temperate world. The yellow buckeye Aesculus
flava (syn. A. octandra) is also a valuable
ornamental tree with yellow flowers, but is less widely planted.
Among the smaller species, the bottlebrush buckeye Aesculus
parviflora also makes a very interesting and unusual flowering
shrub. Several other members of the genus are used as ornamentals,
and several horticultural hybrids have also been developed, most
notably the red Horse Chestnut Aesculus ×
carnea, a hybrid between A. hippocastanum and
A. pavia.
References
- ^
Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
- ^
Hardin, JW. 1957. A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae I.
Brittonia 9:145-171.
- ^
Judd, WS, RW Sanders, MJ Donoghue. 1994. Angiosperm family pairs.
Harvard Papers in Botany. 1:1-51.
- ^
MG Harrington, KJ Edwards, SA Johnson, MW Chase. 2005. Phylogenetic
inference in Sapindaceae sensu lato using plastid matK and rbcL DNA
sequences. Systematic Botany. 30:366–382
- ^
Hardin, JW. 1957. A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae I.
Brittonia 9:145-171
- ^
Hardin, JW. 1957. A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae II.
Brittonia 9:173-195
- ^
Hardin, JW. 1960. A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae V,
Species of the Old World. Brittonia 12:26-38
External
links
Media related to Aesculus at Wikimedia
Commons
Information related to Aesculus from Wikispecies.
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