Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WESTERN BUCKEYE

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Aesculus glabra Willd. var. arguta (Buckl. ) B.L. Robinson

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Shrub or small tree

Height: 3-12+ feet

Family: Hippocastanaceae - Buckeye Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Stems:

Erect; bark of young trees smooth, pale yellow-brown; bark of mature trees scaly or flat-ridged, dark brown.

Leaves:

Opposite, deciduous, palmately compound, stalk 4 to 6.5 inches long, enlarged at base; leaflets 5-11, usually 7, elliptic, lanceolate or egg-shaped, 3 to 6 inches long, .6 to 2.4 inches wide; upper surface glabrous, shiny, dark green; lower surface paler, pubescent on veins to minutely hairy or woolly; margins entire at base, sharply toothed above; tip sharp-pointed or tapering to narrow point; leaflet stalks to 2/5 inch long. The number, shape and size of the leaflets can be quite variable.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, cylindrical or pyramidal, 4 to 6 inches long, terminating main branches.

Flowers:

Calyx broadly bell-shaped, 1/8 to 1/3 inch long, yellowish-green, 5-lobed; lobes, unequal, blunt, pink-tipped; corolla 2/5 to 7/10 inch long; petals 4, pale yellow, outside hairy; upper 2 petals erect or curved, with 2 orange spots inside; 2 lateral petals slightly shorter, with orange streak inside; stamens 7, curved, 1/2 to 4/5 inch long, extending beyond corolla; filaments hairy near orange anthers; style greenish, stigma red.

Fruits:

Unevenly spherical, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, rust-colored; husk leathery, spiny, divided into 3-4 sections; seeds 1-4, irregularly spherical, nut-like, about 1 inch in diameter, smooth, glossy, dark brown with large, pale scar.

Habitat:

Stream banks, rocky wooded hillsides, lowland woods, and thickets in prairie ravines; moist, often calcareous soil.

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Toxicity:

The seeds are mildly poisonous with swine particularly susceptable. The leaves poisonous to livestock. Clinical signs include staggering, trembling and legs splayed out like a sawhorse. These symptoms typically last 24 hours.

Uses:

Native Americans ate the seeds after boiling or roasting. The seeds were ground and thrown into streams to poison the fish. There was also a superstition that carrying a seed in pocket would alleviate rheumatism.

Comments:

Aesculus is an ancient name for a nut-bearing tree in Europe, glabra refers to the smooth leaves, and arguta "sharp-toothed" describes the leaf margins. Western buckeye fruit appears in September.

Western buckeye inflorescence