Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanaceae)

The horse chestnut is one of Jeremiah’s favorite trees.  It’s the kind of tree in the vacant lot near his house.  It has unusual compound leaves because the leaflets are arranged like fingers.  In fact, this arrangement of leaflets is called palmate, like the palm of your hand. Another oddity is the way the leaves are arranged on the twig. They spiral the twig, which is called whorl arrangement.

The horse chestnut is native to Europe and was brought here by early settlers.  There are several trees related to the horse chestnut, which include all the different kinds of buckeyes.  Like its cousins, the seed it produces is called a buckeye.  These attractive seeds contain a poison that can cause vomiting or even paralysis if eaten.

 The horse chestnut is one of the first trees to get its leaves in the spring and one of the first to lose them in the fall.