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Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Tree
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	FACU, FAC+
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Spring and Summer
After Harvest Regrowth Rate
Bloat
C:N Ratio	High
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	Yes
Fire Resistant	No
Flower Color	White
Flower Conspicuous	No
Foliage Color	Green
Foliage Porosity Summer	Dense
Foliage Porosity Winter	Porous
Foliage Texture	Coarse
Fruit/Seed Color	Brown
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	No
Growth Form	Single Stem
Growth Rate	Rapid
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	25
Height, Mature (feet)	70
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	No
Lifespan	Long
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	Yes
Shape and Orientation	Erect
Toxicity	Severe
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	No
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	None
CaCO3 Tolerance	Medium
Cold Stratification Required	Yes
Drought Tolerance	Medium
Fertility Requirement	Medium
Fire Tolerance	Low
Frost Free Days, Minimum	145
Hedge Tolerance	None
Moisture Use	Medium
pH, Minimum	5
pH, Maximum	7.1
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	300
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	700
Precipitation, Minimum	35
Precipitation, Maximum	55
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	36
Salinity Tolerance	None
Shade Tolerance	Tolerant
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-33
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Mid Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	Medium
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Spring
Fruit/Seed Period End	Fall
Fruit/Seed Persistence	No
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	No
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound	58
Seed Spread Rate	Slow
Seedling Vigor	High
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate	None
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	Medium
Lumber Product	Yes
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	Yes
Palatable Browse Animal	Low
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	No
Post Product	No
Protein Potential
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Rosidae

Order  Sapindales

Family  Hippocastanaceae -- Horse-chestnut family

Genus  Aesculus L. -- buckeye P

Species  Aesculus glabra Willd. -- Ohio buckeye P

 

Alternate common names

Horse chestnut, buckeye, American buckeye, fetid buckeye, stinking buckeye, white buckeye, Texas buckeye (var. arguta)

 

Warning: Ohio buckeye is highly toxic when taken internally.

 

Uses

Poisonous Plant: All parts of the plant (leaves, bark, fruit) are highly toxic if ingested – because of the glycoside aesculin, the saponin aescin, and possibly alkaloids.  Symptoms are muscle weakness and paralysis, dilated pupils, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, paralysis, and stupor.  Many landowners have eradicated it to prevent livestock poisoning.  Native Americans ground buckeye to use as a powder on ponds to stun fish. 

 

Commercial: The soft, lightwood of Ohio buckeye has limited commercial use as sawtimber and it is of little commercial importance.  It is used for making artificial limbs because it is light, easily worked, and resists splitting; it is also used in small quantities for various kinds of woodenware, crates, veneer, and toys.  Pioneers used the wood for cabin structure and furniture.

 

Ornamental: The tree is an attractive ornamental, best in open, natural settings or parks because of its broad crown.  It also is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental shrub.

 

Other: Buckeye seeds have sometimes been carried as good-luck charms and to prevent rheumatism.  Despite the poisonous properties to humans and livestock (below), squirrels are known to eat the raw seeds.  Native Americans ate roasted seeds as a starchy meal.

 

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

 

Description

General: Horsechestnut Family (Hippocastanaceae).  Native, small trees, most less than 15 m tall (rarely to 45 m), with a dense oval to round crown, branching quite low, sometimes (usually on drier sites) a thicket-forming shrub; twigs thick, red-brown, hairy when young, with large triangular leaf scars; terminal buds large, orangish brown with keeled scales; bark smooth and light gray, becoming rough and scaly.  Leaves are deciduous, opposite, palmately compound, leaflets 5­7(-11), oval to obovate or lanceolate, 6-13 cm long with a finely toothed margin, emerging bright green, deepening to dark green, often developing yellow or orange fall color, emitting a strong fetid odor when crushed.  The leaves have a somewhat unique shape.  Flowers are creamy to greenish yellow, about 1-2 cm long, in large, showy, upright, branched, terminal clusters at ends of leafy branches, only those flowers near the base of the branches of a cluster are perfect and fertile -- the others are staminate; petals 4; stamens longer than petals.  Fruits are rounded capsules about 3 cm wide, borne on a stout stalk, with a warty or prickly, thick, leathery husk; seeds 1(-3) smooth, glossy, chestnut-brown seeds, each with a pale scar (the “buck's eye”).  The common name refers to its abundance in Ohio and the supposed likeness of the nut to the eye of a buck; other names are derived from the fetid odor of the crushed leaves, bark, broken twigs, and flowers.

 

Variation within the species:  Two morphological segments are said to exist within the species: var. glabra is the northern (northwestern) segment with 5 leaflets, var. arguta the more southern form with 7-11 leaflets and other minor and variable differences in vestiture and leaflet shape.  Var. arguta is weakly differentiated and commonly not recognized (see for example Diggs et al. 1999).

 

Distribution

Primarily a species of the east-central US.  Var. glabra grows from western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and southern Michigan west to Illinois and south to Tennessee, Alabama, and rarely in Georgia, Mississippi, and states peripheral to the main northern range.  Var. arguta (if recognized) is native to upland forests of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.  Ohio buckeye is planted in various localities in the eastern US, including localities north and east of its main range.  For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.

 

Adaptation

Ohio buckeye occurs in mixed hardwood forests of bottom lands along river and stream banks and in rich, moist soils of ravines and other steep to gentle slopes, less commonly on drier sites mixed in oak-hickory stands, on limestone slopes in the southwestern portion of the range. 

 

It is shade tolerant and often found in beech-sugar maple woods.  In dense stands, side competition and shade foster straight boles and encourage natural pruning of this tree, which otherwise tends to have a large crown that retains branches on the lower portions. 

 

Ohio buckeye is one of the first trees to leaf out in spring.  Flowering: March-May, after the leaves appear; fruiting: September-October. 

 

Establishment

Seeds of Ohio buckeye ordinarily germinate in the spring after wintering on the ground.  Seedlings can grow under some shade, but the species seems to develop best as isolated individuals in openings along streambanks and on other moist sites.  Young trees show moderate growth rates and may begin producing fruit at 8 years.  Most trees live 80-100 years. 

 

Ohio buckeye can be propagated by seed (stratify 60-120 days at 33-41° F); seeds must be kept moist to avoid loss of viability. 

 

Management

Leaf scorch and leaf blotch are usually the most serious problems of Ohio buckeye.  Leaf scorch, seemingly a response to heat and drought along urban streets, results in browning of the leaf margins.  By late summer to early fall the trees look unsightly and are often partially defoliated.  Air pollution may be more responsible for this problem than heat or drought.  The leaf blotch (Guignardia aesculi) begins as brown spots or blotches on the leaves and may eventually give the tree a scorched appearance.  This disease may slow the growth rate but does no permanent damage to the tree and can be controlled on ornamentals. 

 

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

This tree is available through most local nurseries.  Aesculus `Autumn Splendor' is similar to wild forms but has glossy dark green leaves that remain in good condition throughout the growing season, resistant to leaf scorch, and develops a maroon-red fall color.  The Eurasian native horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is occasionally planted as an ornamental shade tree, but Ohio buckeye is more common.  Ohio buckeye is often used as an understock for grafting cultivars of other species of Aesculus.

 

References

Brizicky, G.K. 1963.  The genera of Sapindales in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arb. 44:462-501. 

 

Diggs, G.M., Jr., B.L. Lipscomb, & R.J. O’Kennon 1999.  Shinners & Mahler’s illustrated flora of north central Texas.  Sida, Botanical Miscellany, No. 16. 

 

Felter, H.W. & J.U. Lloyd 2000.  King's American dispensatory: Aesculus.  Scanned version.  <https://metalab.unc.edu/herbmed/eclectic/kings/aesculus.html>

 

Hardin, J.W. 1957.  A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae. Brittonia 9:145-171, 173-195. 

 

Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation 1999.  Noble foundation plant image gallery.  Ardmore, Oklahoma.  29nov2000.  <https://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html>

 

Williams, R.D. 1990.  Aesculus glabra Willd. – Ohio Buckeye.  Pp. 92-95, IN: R.M. Burns and B.H. Honkala (tech. coords.).  Silvics of North America.  Volume 2.  Hardwoods.  USDA, Forest Service Agric. Handbook 654, Washington, D.C.  <https://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Table_of_contents.htm>

 

Prepared By

Guy Nesom

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

 

Species Coordinator

Lincoln Moore

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Edited: 17jan01 jsp;07feb03ahv; 30may06jsp

 

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture