horse chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum

• A stout tree up to 30 metres tall, with a huge domed canopy and grey-brown, fairly flakey bark
  
  
• Distinctive leaves, with five or more long leaflets
  
  
• Large red-brown sticky buds
  
  
• Clusters of white/pink flowers (not pink/red - that's a different species) that make it look like a huge candelabra
  
  
• The big mahogany-brown conkers burst from a green spiky fruit (smooth cases tend to be the pink/red flowered species
  
  
• Leaves turn from orange to scarlet in autumn

 
Where found

• Common in parks, gardens, streets and village greens
   
• It was introduced from Turkey in the late 16th century and widely planted here

When to look for

• Leaves from April
   
• Flowers in May
   
• Leaves drop late October
  
  
• Falling ripe fruit from September to October
   

Did you know

• The sticky sap on horse chestnut buds protects them from frost damage and insects
  
  
• Horse chestnut conkers are slightly poisonous to most animals, causing sickness if eaten
  
  
• The annual world conker championship has been held in the village of Ashton, Northants, since 1965
  
  
• 'Conker' is derived from the word conch, and the childrens game was originally played with snail shells