Aesculus flava, also known commonly as the common buckeye, the sweet buckeye, and the yellow buckeye, is a species of deciduous tree in the subfamily Hippocastanoideae of the family Sapindaceae. The species is native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. It grows in mesophytic forests or floodplains, generally in acidic to circumneutral soil, reaching a height of .
Description
The yellow buckeye or also known as the sweet buckeye is an irregular to upright-oval, canopy tree, it can reach heights of tall with stout picturesque branches that tend to sweep the ground. The wood is soft, weak and does not resist decay, it also produces a bad odor when green but the seasoned wood is odorless, white and lightweight. The twigs have a faintly rank odor, but much less so than the Ohio buckeye, A. glabra.
The leaves are palmately compound with five (rarely seven) leaflets, long and broad. Palmately-compound, deciduous leaves usually turn orange to red in the fall.
The fruit is a smooth (spineless), round or oblong capsule in diameter, containing 1-3 nut-like seeds, in diameter, brown with a whitish basal scar. The trunk can be dark gray to brown when young, furrowed and ridged when middle aged, when mature it becomes scaly and platy. The buckeye fruit resembles the eye of a deer, which is how it got its name buckeye.
Taxonomy
The common name for the Aesculus flava is sweet buckeye and yellow buckeye, in the family Sapindaceae. It is cultivated as an ornamental tree. Genus name is the latin name for a kind of oak bearing edible acorns but applied by Linnaeus to this genus. Poor clay or dry soils is not the best conditions for the yellow buckeye, but it can tolerate short flooding and urban conditions. The yellow buckeye can be found in rich soils on river bottoms, stream banks and mountain slopes in southwestern Pennsylvania to northern Alabama and Georgia and can also be down the Ohio River valley reaching to Illinois. Poisoning from saponins is rare but abdominal pain is possible. The fruit is poisonous but can be made edible through a leaching process.
Cultivation
Aesculus flava is cultivated as an ornamental tree. The tree's showy yellow flowers and good autumn color are attractive in larger gardens and in parks. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
This tree has a coarse texture and leaves that are dark that attract attention as a specimen plant. This tree is not a good fit for small areas and needs to be put in a large open area in order to form due to its size. Aesculus flava tends to produce large amounts of leaf and flower litter in the summer and fall. The fruit makes good food for wildlife but can produce undesirable litter in urban areas. The nectar from the flowers attracts hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects, the nuts attract squirrels.
Uses
The largest of the buckeyes, the Native Americans historically made food from the seeds, after the removal of the toxic element by roasting and soaking. Saponins can be obtained by chopping them up into small pieces immersing them into hot water, it can be used to wash the body or clothes.