251 



AESCULACEAE. The Buckeye Family. 



AESCLILUS. The Buckeyes. 



Trees with dark or ashy-gray colored bark; twigs stout; Imds large, 

 leaves opposite, palmately divided into 5-9 ovate or oblong divisions, 

 the divisions serrate; flowers in terminal panicles; fruit a 3-lobed 

 capsule. The fruit is poisonous to stock, although it rarelv iiroves 

 fatal. 



Anthers protruding from the flower; fruit warty 1 A. glabra. 



Anthers included in the flower; fruit smooth 2 A. ootandra. 



1. Aesculus glabra Willdenow. Buckeye. Plate 116. Medium to 

 large sized trees'; bark of old trees fissured, not tight; branchlets robust ; 

 twigs at first more or less pubescent, remaining more or less hair}^ until 

 maturity; leaves large, 5-foliate, rarely 6 or 7 foliate, petioles more or 

 less pubescent; leaflets sessile or on very short stalks, ovate-oblong, 

 oval-oblong, or obovate, about 1 dm. long, acuminate, narrowed to a 

 wedge-shaped base, more or less pubescent beneath imtil maturity, es- 

 pecially along the principal veins, margins irregularly serrate except 

 near the base; flowers generally appear in Maj^ when the leaves are 

 almost full size, but in the southern part of the State the flowers 

 sometimes appeal' the last of March, flower clusters 1-1. .5 dm. long, the 

 whole inflorescence usually densely covered with white hairs, flowers 

 pale-greenish j-ellow; fruit a globular spiny capsule, generally 3-6 cm. 

 in diameter, which usualbv contains 1-3 large glossy chocolate-colored 

 nuts. 



The pubescence on the petioles, leaflets and inflorescence is generally 

 white, but often with it are reddish and longer hairs which are scattered 

 among the other hairs, except in the articulations of the flowers, 

 pedicels and leaflets, where they appear in tufts. 



Distribution. — Pennsylvania south to Alabama, west to Iowa and 

 south to the Indian Territorj^ Found in all parts of Indiana. It is 

 usually associated with beech, sugar maple and linn. On account of the 

 poisonous character of its fruit, land owners have almost exterminated 

 it. 



From the data at hand it appears that the Ijuckej-e was a rare tree 

 in the northern tier of counties. However, as soon as the liasin of the 

 Wabash is reached it becomes a freciuent to a common tree where l)eech, 

 sugar maple, and linn are found. In all of our area it prefers a rich 

 moist soil, except in the southern counties it may be found even on the 



iS. Coulter: Size of some trees of Jefferson Coimty, Ind. Bot. C.az. Vol. 1:10:187.5 

 He says: "Fifty trees were measured at three feet above the ground with an average diameter 

 of 2 ft. and 9 inclies. An equal number of Aesculus octanrlro were measin-ed at the same 

 height from the ground with an average diameter of 2 ft. and 9 inclies." 



