Aesculus sylvatica
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Two Aesculus sylvatica grafted onto common horse chestnuts |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aesculus sylvatica | ||||||||||||
| Bartram |
Aesculus sylvatica is a native to North America representative of the horse chestnut ( Aesculus ).
features
Aesculus sylvatica is a small tree and reaches heights of growth of 15 m with a trunk diameter of 5 to 25 cm, or more often a small shrub 1 to 3 m in height. The bark is dark to light gray, its surface divides into small thin plates. The branches are light reddish brown and bare. The buds are egg-shaped, pointed to blunt, 7 to 8 mm long, light brown.
The leaves are made up of 5 or 7 leaflets arranged in the shape of a hand. The petiole is 8 to 18 cm long, glabrous to slightly downy hairs. The leaflets are 8 to 20 cm long, 3 to 7 cm wide, oblong, inverted, lanceolate, inverted lanceolate to elliptical. The end of the leaf is pointed, the base pointed to pointed. The leaf margin is single or double serrated or irregular notched-serrated. The surface is bald (with a few hairs on the nerves) to densely hairy. The top is yellow-green, the underside green. The leaflet stalks are 3 to 12 mm long.
The inflorescence is narrow to wide pyramidal, 10 to 15 cm long and downy hairy. The flowers are mostly yellow, often also reddish. The flower stalk is 3 to 5 mm long and hairy. The calyx is 7 to 15 mm long, bell-shaped to tubular-bell-shaped, densely hairy with some or no glands, the edge of the calyx is hairy and glandless. The five calyx lobes are oblong-egg-shaped, narrow and round or truncated. The crown is shaggy hairy on the nails and the edges of the plate, the surface of the plate is densely glandular, but covered with a few hairs. The upper petals are 25 to 37 mm long, the nails are 21 to 32 mm long, the same length as or longer than the lateral petals. The plate is small, obovate or spatulate. The lateral petals are 20 to 30 mm long, the nails 10 to 18 mm, longer than the calyx. The plate is wide and oval, round and often with a heart-shaped base. The 6 or 7 stamens are 18 to 30 mm long, the stamens are hairy in the lower half. The anthers are smooth, glandular at the tip and slightly glandular at the base of the loculi. The pistil is the same length or slightly longer than the stamens and with the exception of the stigma shaggy hair.
The capsule fruit is spherical and 2.5 to 4 cm in diameter. The pericarp is thin, slightly pitted and light brown. The seeds are spherical or irregular, 1 to 3, rarely 4 to 6 in the fruit and are dark chestnut brown.
Distribution and locations
The distribution area includes the Piedmont Plateau from southern Virginia through the Carolinas and Georgia to northeast Alabama ; north to Tennessee and the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau.
The species grows in different locations: deciduous and pine forests, rocky mountain slopes, river banks and swampy forests. Most often it grows on the well-drained slopes of the Piedmont Province.
Systematics
Aesculus sylvatica is placed within the genus Aesculus in the section Pavia . It forms hybrids with the other, sympatric occurring species of the section . The species is very variable, some of this variability is attributed to introgression of Aesculus pavia and Aesculus flava .
The species was first described by John Bartram in 1794 . The validity of this description has long been debated and some editors have preferred the name Aesculus neglecta Lindley . Today the name Aesculus sylvatica is considered to be correctly described.
supporting documents
- James W. Hardin: A Revision of the American Hippocastanaceae II . Brittonia, Volume 9, 1957, pp. 173-195.
Web links
- Distribution map (United States Geological Survey; PDF file; 682 kB)