Aesculus californica

California buckeye (Aesculus californica )

The California buckeye (Aesculus californica ) is a domestic only in California representatives of the horse chestnut (Aesculus ).

Features

The California buckeye grows as a tree or as a broad shrub that often forms dense thickets. It reaches stature heights of 12 m and a ( crown ) diameter of three, rarely up to 15 m. The bark is light gray to almost white and smooth. The branches are young reddish brown and bare. The buds are pointed and resinous.

The leaves are pinnate palmate and have five, rarely four to seven leaflets. The petiole is 1-12 cm long. The leaves are 7-17 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, ovate - lanceolate, elliptic- oblong or oblong- lanceolate. The blade end is pointed, the leaf base slightly cordate, rounded, obtuse to acuminate. The leaf margin serrate sharp. The lower leaf surface is glabrous, slightly bluish green, sitting on the nerves short white hair. The top is bare and dark green. The sub-petioles are 0.5 to 3 cm long and scattered white hairs.

The inflorescence is narrow columnar, 8-20 cm long and densely hairy. The flower stem is hairy and 3 to 10 mm long. The calyx is 5-8 mm long, campanulate to Roehrig, lavender - gray to pink or purple. The five sepals form - in different combinations - one or two lips. The four or five petals are almost white to light pink. The upper and lateral petals are 12-18 mm long, almost equal and slightly abspreizend. The nails are shorter than the calyx and hairs. The plates are obovate, obtuse, surface and edge are hairy and drüsenlos. The fifth petal is small or missing. The five to seven stamens are unequal, 18-30 mm long, longer in male flowers. The stamens are bent, purple to white and bare, the anthers are bright orange, glabrous, glandular at the tip and base of the loculi. Fertile stamps are with style longer than the stamens.

The capsule fruit is obovate and has a diameter of 5 to 8 cm. The pericarp is thin and light brown. They usually contain a seed which is pale orange - brown and has a diameter of 4 to 5 cm.

Dissemination and locations

The California buckeye is endemic to California and geographically isolated from the other species of the genus. It grows along the coast chain, and on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Rarely they can be found in the Central Valley. It rises from sea level to 1500 m above sea level. It often grows along streams and in ravines, on loamy or dry gravel soils.

Ecology and their use

The foliation is in February, the leaf fall in late summer. Flowering takes place from May to July.

All plant parts are poisonous. The Indians used ground seeds as a fish poison. Nectar and pollen are toxic to honey bees.

System

The California buckeye was first described in 1834 by Édouard Spach as Calothyrsus californica, however, questioned by Thomas Nuttall in the genus Aesculus 1838. Aesculus californica is the only American representative of the section Calothyrsus, whose other representatives are native to Asia.

Documents

• James W. Hardin: A revision of the American Hippocastanaceae II Brittonia, Volume 9, 1957, pp. 173-195.