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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 114: SWEET BUCKEYE
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

SWEET BUCKEYE

Aesculus octandra, Marsh.

Form.—Height 50-80 feet, diameter 1-2½ feet; trunk usually short; crown conical or round-topped.

Leaves.—Opposite, digitately compound, leaflets 5-7, oval, 4-10 inches long, long-pointed, finely toothed, smooth and dark green above, somewhat hairy and yellowish-green beneath.

Flowers.—April-May; polygamo-monoecious or perfect, borne in terminal panicles 4-12 inches long; corolla yellow, with included stamens.

Fruit.—October; a large smooth irregularly rounded or pear-shaped pod or capsule, 1-2 inches thick, 3-celled but usually bearing only one large irregularly rounded, glossy, brown nut, which is somewhat poisonous.

Bark.—Evenly furrowed, the gray-brown ridges breaking up into irregular scales.

Wood.—Light, soft, yellowish, or nearly white.

Range.—Pennsylvania to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Common locally. Found in the following counties: Barbour, Boone, Braxton, Calhoun, Doddridge, Fayette, Kanawha, Lewis, Logan, Marshall, Mingo, Monongalia, Monroe, Pocahontas, Putnam, Ritchie, Summers, Tyler, Upshur (rare), Webster (rare), and Wyoming.

Habitat.—Rich soil, preferring river valleys.

Notes.—The wood of Sweet Buckeye is not important commercially, but is used to some extent for veneer, cooperage, candy boxes, paper pulp, etc. The tree is a rapid grower and is sometimes planted with satisfactory results on lawns and in parks. Variety hybrida (D. C.) Sarg. with calyx and corolla tinged with purple has been found at Weston and other points in the State.