Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Sapindaceae > Aesculus > Aesculus turbinata

Aesculus turbinata (Japanese horse chestnut)

Synonyms: Aesculus dissimilis; Aesculus japonica; Pawia dissimilis; Pawia turbinata (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

Aesculus turbinata, common name "Japanese horse-chestnut" (Tochinoki or Tochi (トチノキ(栃の木) or トチ(栃、橡))), is native to Japan but cultivated elsewhere. It is a tree up to 30 m tall. Flowers are white to pale yellowish with red spots. Capsules are dark brown, obovoid to pyriform. The seeds were traditionally eaten, after leaching, by the Jōmon people of Japan over about four millennia, until 300 AD.
View Wikipedia Record: Aesculus turbinata

Infraspecies

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  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;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Pollinators [2]  Bees
Specific Gravity [3]  0.45
Structure [2]  Tree
Usage [2]  Saponins in the seed are 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 - weak, nicely grained. Used for house fittings, domestic items etc;
Height [2]  66 feet (20 m)
Width [2]  39 feet (12 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Aesculus turbinata

Predators

Providers

Pollinated by 
Bombus honshuensis[6]
Bombus hypocrita[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
3Chave J, Coomes D, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Swenson NG, Zanne AE (2009) Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters 12: 351-366. Zanne AE, Lopez-Gonzalez G, Coomes DA, Ilic J, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Miller RB, Swenson NG, Wiemann MC, Chave J (2009) Data from: Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Dryad Digital Repository.
4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
5Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
6Kato, M., T. Makutani, T. Inoue, and T. Itino. 1990. Insect-flower relationship in the primary beech forest of Ashu, Kyoto: an overview of the flowering phenology and seasonal pattern of insect visits. Contr. Biol. Lab. Kyoto Univ. 27:309-375.
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