Aesculus chinensis

Chinese horse chestnut (Aesculus chinensis)

Features

The Chinese Horse chestnut is an up to 25 m high, deciduous tree and reaches breast height diameter of up to 2.5 m. The branches are bare, young and hairy to densely villous.

The petiole is 7-15 cm long, hairy or bald greyish. The leaf blade consists of 5-7, rarely 9 palmately arranged leaflets. The sub-petioles are 0.5 to 2.5 cm long, and as the petiole hairy grayish or bald. The leaves are oblong- lanceolate, oblong, or oblong ovate. They are 8 to 25, often 30 cm long and from 3 to 8.5, often 10.5 cm wide. Your bottom is bare and on the nervous gray-haired (sometimes only in young leaves), or uniformly gray hairy or hairy shaggy. The base is truncate, rounded or slightly cordate, leaf margin serrate to crenate -serrate, the blade is sharpened end suddenly. There are 13 to 25 pair of lateral nerves.

The inflorescence is hairy or bald. The inflorescence stalk is 5-10 cm long, the inflorescence a cylindrical thyrsus of 15 to 35 cm in length and at the base of 2.5 to 12 cm width. The inflorescence consists of 2 to 4 cm long pedunculated part inflorescence carrying 5 to 10 flowers. The flower stalk is 2-8 mm long. The flowers are fragrant. The calyx is 3-7 mm long, hairy on the outside or bald. The four petals are white with yellow spots, nearly all the same wrong - länglicheiförmig to wrong - lanceolate, 8-14 mm long, 3-5 mm wide. The outside is hairy. The 6 or 7 stamens are 18 to 30 mm long. The stamens are glabrous, the anthers are 1 to 1.5 mm long. The stylus is shaggy or bald except for the tip. Flowering period is April to June.

The capsule fruit is yellowish brown, ovoid, kogelig, obovate or pear-shaped, has a diameter of 3 to 4.5 cm, dotted thick but smooth. The pericarp is dry 1-6 mm thick. The capsule contains one to two seeds which are brown or almost spherical and have a diameter of 2 to 4.5 cm. The navel is white, and not between less than one third to one half of the seed one. Fruit ripening in September and October.

Dissemination and locations

The Chinese Horse chestnut is endemic in China. It occurs naturally in the provinces of Chongqing, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan. Sophistication it is in Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Zhejiang. It grows in deciduous forests, near rivers, in thickets on mountain and hill slopes, in canyons and roadsides. It rises to 2000, rarely 2300 m above sea level.

Use and specifics Dern characteristics

Extracts of the plant are traded as a remedy. According to figures from the Max_Rubner Institute, the Chinese horse chestnut is one of the best sources of tocotrienol vitamin E and plastochromanol -8.

System

The Chinese Horse chestnut is placed within the genus horse chestnut (Aesculus ) in the section Calothyrsus, along with the California Horse Chestnut, Aesculus assamica and Japanese horse chestnut.

The ratio of Aesculus chinensis to very similar Aesculus has long been unclear wilsonii. Aesculus chinensis Bunge had been described in 1833 by means of cultured specimens and known only in cultivation. Aesculus wilsonii in 1913 first described by wild plants. The two forms, however, are connected by flowing characteristic transitions, as early as 1960 Hardin has called into question the status of two separate species. 2005 Aesculus was incorporated wilsonii in the status of a variety in Aesculus chinensis, so there are two varieties with the following differential features:

• Aesculus chinensis var chinensis: Leaf blades are hairy on the underside glabrous or young on the nerve grayish. The leaf base is obtuse. This variety is found only in culture, wildlife reserves are not backed up. It occurs mainly on temple land and houses. It grows below 800 m above sea level.
• Aesculus chinensis var wilsonii: Leaf blades are on the bottom rather uniformly gray hairy to shaggy, hairy or gray only on the nerves. The leaf base is obtuse to rounded or slightly heart-shaped. It grows in altitudes of between 600 to 2000 rare 2300 m in the above mentioned fields and at the locations listed above.

Documents

• James W. Hardin: Studies in the Hippocastanaceae V. species of the Old World. Brittonia, Volume 12, 1960, pp. 26-38.