as to make those who ate it forget their native country”. (They are not that 
good.) 
Hackberries often bear dense tangles of contorted twigs called 
“witch’s brooms”. These deformities, caused by mites and fungi working 
together, detract from the value of hackberries in landscaping. This defect 
aside, the species offers distinctive bark, handsome shape, fast growth, 
and tolerance of wind, drought, and poor soil. Asian hackberry (Celtis 
bungeana—see a young one behind the Climatron) resists witch’s brooms 
and may become more common in horticulture. 
The English name “hackberry” comes from the Scandinavian name 
hagberry for Celtis. Celtis is an ancient name for hackberries and other 
trees, and occidentalis means “western” in Latin. 
See Map: L, 11-16, 34 
HORSECHESTNUT 
Aesculus hippocastanum 
AR The horsechestnut is native to mountains 
Ws in Greece and neighboring regions, and 
i’ Mi am’ is most loved perhaps in Britain, where it 
N AN ne is planted extensively. There, schoolboys 
, dink, harden the seeds with various secret 
ar, 2, treatments, drill them, tie them on a 
I Vn i string, and conk them together in the 
a i’ game of conquerors (or conkers). The 
Nea seed that breaks the opponent's is the 
\ ig): mai conqueror. 
The large, wood-grained, shiny 
seeds have also been powdered into 
Winter Summer —_ soap, roasted into a hot beverage, 
fermented and distilled into an alcoholic 
drink, and investigated as a commercial source of the chemical acetone. 
Don’t try any of the drinking temptations mentioned above, for the seeds 
and other parts of the tree are toxic. 
The flowers are held on upright “candles” during May. They are 
white with fragrant yellow spots that change to red, odorless spots, 
possibly as a signal to pollinators of changing nectar availability. Such 
color changes occur on other insect-pollinated flowers, such as the yellow- 
horn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium) just northeast of the Kaeser Maze. 
You may notice the similarity of horsechestnut seeds and leaves to 
those of the Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), which grows wild locally. An 
18 
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