Yellow Buckeye tree identification
The Yellow Buckeye Aesculus flava, also known as the Sweet Buckeye, is a species of Horse Chestnut native to south-eastern USA. It was introduced to Britain in 1764. It gets its name from the fact that the seed is in the form of a ‘Conker’ which reminded the early settlers of the USA of a buck’s eye. It has yellow flowers. Aesculus is a genus 13 to 19 buckeyes and horse chestnuts of which the most well known is the Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum. Click HERE for more details of this species
Yellow Buckeye tree identification – leaf palmate has 5 large leaflets leaflets with stalks, flowers in yellow candles, fruit has smooth husk.
Tree in May
The leaf is Palmate with 5 leaflets. Each leaflet has a 1cm stalk.
Flower buds about to open in early May
Yellow-green flowers open in mid-May
Individual flowers have petals that are pale yellow on the outside but the rear petal is bright red inside, to attract insects. The orange anthers on the pale stamens are almost hidden by the petals.
The fruit is a capsule like the Horse Chestnut but the husk has no spines and is similar to the fruit of the Indian Horse Chestnut. The nut inside the husk is like a ‘conker’. To the early settlers it reminded them of the eye of a male deer and hence the name ‘buckeye’.
The bark of old trees is scaly.
Close-up of the terminal bud showing the bud scales. The terminal bud is smooth and not sticky like the Horse Chestnut.