California horse chestnut
| California horse chestnut | ||||||||||||
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California horse chestnut ( Aesculus californica ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Aesculus californica | ||||||||||||
| ( Spach ) Nutt. |
The California horse chestnut ( Aesculus californica ) is a representative of the horse chestnut ( Aesculus ) native to California .
features
The California horse chestnut grows as a tree or as a broad shrub that often forms dense shrubbery. It reaches heights of growth of 12 m and a (crown) diameter of three, rarely up to 15 m. The bark is light gray to almost white and smooth. The twigs are reddish-brown when young and bare. The buds are pointed and resinous.
The leaves are palmate and pinnate and consist of five, rarely four to seven, leaflets. The petiole is 1 to 12 cm long. The leaflets are 7 to 17 cm long, 2 to 6 cm wide, ovate-lanceolate, elliptical-oblong or oblong-lanceolate. The end of the leaf is pointed, the base slightly heart-shaped, rounded, blunt to pointed. The leaf margin is sharply serrated. The underside of the leaf is bare, light blue-green, short white hairs sit on the nerves. The top is bare and dark green. The leaflet stalks are 0.5 to 3 cm long and scattered with white hairs.
The inflorescence is narrowly columnar, 8 to 20 cm long and densely hairy. The flower stalk is hairy and 3 to 10 mm long. The calyx is 5 to 8 mm long, bell-shaped to tubular, lavender-gray to pink or purple. The five sepals form - in different compositions - one or two lips. The four or five petals are almost white to light pink. The upper and the lateral petals are 12 to 18 mm long, almost the same and slightly splaying. The nails are shorter than the calyx and hairy. The plates are obovate, blunt, the surface and edge are hairy and glandless. The fifth petal is small or absent. The five to seven stamens are unequal, 18 to 30 mm long, longer in male flowers. The stamens are curved, purple to white and glabrous, the anthers are bright orange, glabrous, glandular at the tip and base of the loculi. Fertile pistils are longer with stylus than the stamens.
The capsule fruit is obovate and 5 to 8 cm in diameter. The pericarp is thin and light brown. It usually contains a seed that is pale orange-brown and 4 to 5 cm in diameter.
Distribution and locations
The California horse chestnut is endemic to California and geographically isolated from the other species in the genus. It grows along the coastal chain and on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada . It is seldom found in the Central Valley . It rises from sea level to 1500 m above sea level. It often grows along streams and in ravines, on loamy or dry gravel soils.
Ecology and use
The leaves shoot in February, the leaf fall in late summer. It blooms from May to July.
All parts of the plant are poisonous. The Indians used ground seeds as fish poison. Nectar and pollen are toxic to honey bees .
Systematics
The Californian horse chestnut was first described by Édouard Spach in 1834 as Calothyrsus californica , but placed in the genus Aesculus by Thomas Nuttall in 1838 . Aesculus californica is the only American representative of the Calothyrsus section , the other representatives of which are native to Asia.
supporting documents
- James W. Hardin: A Revision of the American Hippocastanaceae II . Brittonia, Volume 9, 1957, pp. 173-195.
Individual evidence
- ^ Jepson Flora Project: Aesculus californica , accessed September 27, 2008.
