| Yellow Buckeye | |
|---|---|
| Fruit and leaves of Aesculus Octandra | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Sapindaceae |
| Genus: | Aesculus |
| Species: | A. flava |
| Binomial name | |
| Aesculus flava Sol. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Aesculus octandra |
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Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava) is a species of buckeye native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States.[1] It is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 20–47 m tall. It grows in mesophytic forest or floodplains, generally in acid to circumneutral soil.
The leaves are palmately compound with five (rarely seven) leaflets, 10–25 cm long and broad. The flowers are produced in panicles in spring, yellow to yellow-green, each flower 2–3 cm long with the stamens shorter than the petals (unlike the related Ohio Buckeye, where the stamens are longer than the petals). The twigs have a faintly rank odor, but much less so than the Ohio buckeye, Aesculus glabra. The fruit is a smooth (spineless), round or oblong capsule 5–7 cm diameter, containing 1-3 nut-like seeds, 2.5-3.5 cm diameter, brown with a whitish basal scar. The fruit of the Yellow Buckeye is poisonous to humans but can be made edible through a leaching process.
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Yellow Buckeye is an attractive ornamental tree suitable for parks and large gardens.