SAPINDACEAE 
Ohio Buckeye 
Aesculus glabra Willd. 
HABIT.—A medium-sized tree 30-50 feet in height, with a 
trunk not over 2 feet in diameter; usually much smaller; slender, 
spreading branches, forming a broad, rounded crown; twigs 
thick. 
‘LEAVES.—Opposite, digitately compound. Leaflets usually 
5, rarely 7, 3-6 inches long, 114-2%4 inches broad; ovate or oval, 
gradually narrowed to the entire base; irregularly and finely 
serrate; glabrous, yellow-green above, paler beneath, turning 
yellow in autumn. Petioles 4-6 inches long, slender, enlarged at 
the base. Foliage ill-smelling when bruised. ‘ 
FLOWERS.—April-May, after the leaves; polygamo-monoe- 
cious; small, yellow-green, in terminal panicles 5-6 inches long 
and 2-3 inches broad, more or less downy; pedicels 4-6-flowered ; 
calyx camipanulate, 5-lobed; petals 4, pale yellow, hairy, clawed; 
stamens 7, with long, hairy filaments. 
FRUIT.—October; a thick, leathery, prickly capsule, about 1 
inch in diameter, containing a single large, smooth, lustrous, 
brown nut. A large pale scar gives the name “Buckeye.” 
WINTER-BUDS.—Terminal buds 24 inch long, acute, 
resinous, brownish; inner scales yellow-green, becoming 114-2 
inches long in spring and remaining until the leaves are nearly 
half grown. 
BARK.—Twigs smooth, red-brown, becoming ashy gray; 
old trunks densely furrowed and broken into thick plates; ill- 
smelling when bruised. 
WOOD.—Light, soft, close-grained, weak, whitish, with thin, 
light brown sapwood. 
NOTES.—A native of the Mississippi River Valley. Oc- 
casionally planted in southern Michigan for ornamental purposes, 
but is less popular than the Horse-chestnut. 
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