Chinese horse chestnut
| Chinese horse chestnut | ||||||||||||
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Chinese horse chestnut ( Aesculus chinensis ) |
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| Aesculus chinensis | ||||||||||||
| Bunge |
The Chinese horse chestnut ( Aesculus sinensis Hort. ) Is a representative of the horse chestnut ( Aesculus ). It is endemic to China .
features
The Chinese horse chestnut is a deciduous tree up to 25 m high and reaches a breast height of up to 2.5 m. The twigs are bare, hairy to densely shaggy when young.
The petiole is 7 to 15 cm long, grayish hairy or glabrous. The leaf blade consists of 5 to 7, rarely 9, palmate leaflets. The petioles are 0.5 to 2.5 cm long and, like the petiole, grayish hairy or glabrous. The leaflets are oblong-lanceolate, oblong, or oblong ovoid. They are 8 to 25, rarely 30 cm long and 3 to 8.5, rarely 10.5 cm wide. Their underside is bald and gray-haired on the nerves (sometimes only in young leaves), or uniformly gray-haired or shaggy hairy. The base is truncated, rounded or slightly heart-shaped, the leaf edge is serrated or serrated, the end of the leaf is suddenly pointed. There are 13 to 25 pairs of lateral nerves.
The inflorescence is hairy or glabrous. The peduncle is 5 to 10 cm long, the inflorescence a cylindrical thyrsus 15 to 35 cm long and 2.5 to 12 cm wide at the base. The inflorescence consists of 2 to 4 cm long stalked partial inflorescences that carry 5 to 10 flowers. The flower stalk is 2 to 8 mm long. The flowers are fragrant. The calyx is 3 to 7 mm long, hairy or glabrous on the outside. The four petals are white with yellow spots, almost all of the same obverse elongated to inverted lanceolate, 8 to 14 mm long, 3 to 5 mm wide. The outside is hairy. The 6 or 7 stamens are 18 to 30 mm long. The stamens are bare, the anthers are 1 to 1.5 mm long. The stylus is ragged bald or except the top. Flowering time is April to June.
The capsule fruit is yellowish brown, egg-shaped, kogel-shaped, obovate or pear-shaped, has a diameter of 3 to 4.5 cm, is densely dotted, but smooth. The pericarp is 1 to 6 mm thick when dry. The capsule contains one or two seeds that are brown, almost or entirely spherical, and 2 to 4.5 cm in diameter. The navel is white, and no between less than a third to a half of the seed. Fruit ripens in September and October.
Distribution and locations
The Chinese horse chestnut is endemic to China . It occurs naturally in Chongqing , Gansu , Guangdong, Guizhou , Henan , Hubei , Hunan , Jiangxi , Shaanxi , Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces . It is cultivated in Hebei , Henan, Jiangsu , Shaanxi, Shanxi and Zhejiang . It grows in deciduous forests, near rivers, in thickets, on mountain and hill slopes, in ravines and roadsides. It rises to 2000, rarely 2300 m above sea level.
Use and special features
Extracts of the plant are traded as medicinal products. According to figures from the Max Rubner Institute , the Chinese horse chestnut is one of the best sources of tocotrienol -vitamin E and plastochromanol-8 .
Systematics
The Chinese horse chestnut is placed within the genus horse chestnut ( Aesculus ) in the section Calothyrsus , together with the California horse chestnut , Aesculus assamica and the Japanese horse chestnut .
The relationship between Aesculus chinensis and the very similar Aesculus wilsonii was unclear for a long time. Aesculus chinensis 1833 was Bunge basis of cultured specimens described were only known in culture. Aesculus wilsonii was first described by wild plants in 1913. The two forms, however, are linked by smooth transitions between features; as early as 1960 Hardin had questioned the status of two independent species. In 2005, Aesculus wilsonii was incorporated into Aesculus chinensis with the status of a variety , so there are two varieties with the following differential characteristics:
- Aesculus chinensis var. Chinensis : The leaf blades are glabrous on the underside or grayish hairy on the nerves when young. The leaf base is blunt. This variety only occurs in culture, wild occurrences are not assured. It occurs mainly on temple properties and in houses. It grows below 800 m above sea level.
- Aesculus chinensis var. Wilsonii (Rehder) Turland & NHXia (Syn .: Aesculus wilsonii Rehder ): The leaf blades are rather uniformly gray haired to shaggy on the underside, or just gray haired on the nerves. The leaf base is blunt to rounded or slightly heart-shaped. It grows at altitudes from 600 to 2000 m, rarely 2300 m in the above mentioned areas and in the above mentioned locations.
supporting documents
- James W. Hardin: Studies in the Hippocastanaceae V. Species of the Old World . Brittonia, Vol. 12, 1960, pp. 26-38.
- Nianhe Xia, Nicholas J. Turland: Aesculus . In: Flora of China , Volume 12, 2007, pp. 2-4. (pdf; 197 kB)
- Nicholas J. Turland, Nianhe Xia: A New Combination in Chinese Aesculus (Hippocastanaceae) . Novon, Vol. 15, 2005, pp. 488-489. (pdf; 31 kB)
