Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Aesculus europaea

(Aesculus europaea)

galery
en

Description

“Pet poisonous” – Toxic parts: sprouts, nuts, seeds Aesculus hippocastanum is a large tree, growing to about 39 metres (128 ft) tall:371 with a domed crown of stout branches; on old trees the outer branches are often pendulous with curled-up tips. The leaves are opposite and palmately compound, with 5–7 leaflets; each leaflet is 13–30 cm long, making the whole leaf up to 60 cm across, with a 7–20 cm petiole. The leaf scars left on twigs after the leaves have fallen have a distinctive horseshoe shape, complete with seven "nails". The flowers are usually white with a yellow to pink blotch at the base of the petals; they are produced in spring in erect panicles 10–30 cm tall with about 20–50 flowers on each panicle. Usually only 1–5 fruit develop on each panicle; the shell is a green, spiky capsule containing one (rarely two or three) nut-like seeds called conkers or horse-chestnuts. Each conker is 2–4 cm diameter, glossy nut-brown with a whitish scar at the base. Aesculus species have stout shoots with resinous, often sticky, buds; opposite, palmately divided leaves, often very large-to 65 cm (26 in) across in the Japanese horse chestnut Ae. turbinata. Species are deciduous or evergreen. Flowers are showy, insect- or bird-pollinated, with four or five petals fused into a lobed corolla tube, arranged in a panicle inflorescence. Flowering starts after 80-110 growing degree days. The fruit matures to a capsule, 2-5 cm (25-32-1 31-32 in) diameter, usually globose, containing one to three seeds (often erroneously called a nut) per capsule. Capsules containing more than one seed result in flatness on one side of the seeds. The point of attachment of the seed in the capsule (hilum) shows as a large circular whitish scar.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Sapindales
Family:Sapindaceae
Genus:Sapindales
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