Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Sapindaceae > Aesculus > Aesculus californica

Aesculus californica (California buckeye)

Synonyms: Calothyrsus californica; Hippocastanum californicum; Pavia californica; Pawia californica

Wikipedia Abstract

Aesculus californica, California buckeye or California horse-chestnut, is a species of buckeye native to California and southwestern Oregon.
View Wikipedia Record: Aesculus californica

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Medium
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  5 months 25 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
Hazards [3]  The seed is rich in saponins. Although poisonous, saponins are poorly absorbed by the human body and so most pass through without harm. Saponins are quite bitter and can be found in many common foods such as some beans. They can be removed by carefully leaching the seed or flour in running water. Thorough cooking, and perhaps changing the cooking water once, will also normally remove most of them. However, it is not advisable to eat large quantities of food that contain saponins. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish; The flowers of this plant are toxic to bees;
Leaf Type [3]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [2]  36 inches (91 cm)
Scent [3]  The flowers are scented.
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  12 / lb (26 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [4]  0.36
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  The seed is rich in saponins, these are used as a soap substitute; The saponins can be easily obtained by chopping the seed into small pieces and infusing them in hot water. This water can then be used for washing the body, clothes etc. Its main drawback is a lingering odour of horse chestnuts; Wood - soft, light, very close grained; Of no value as a lumber; The wood was used as friction sticks for making fire by the North American Indians;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Red
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  39 feet (12 m)
Width [3]  33 feet (10 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 7 Low Temperature: 0 F° (-17.8 C°) → 10 F° (-12.2 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Aesculus californica

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Table Mountain   California, United States      

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Agrilus politus[8]

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 9Tamias townsendii, Dallas A. Sutton, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 435, pp. 1-6 (1993)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0