Nature Bulletin No. 266-A   April 22, 1967
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:BUCKEYES AND HORSE CHESTNUTS

Most children know Longfellow's poem which begins: "Under the 
spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands"; but few people know 
that, actually, the tree which inspired it was a horse chestnut. The native 
buckeyes and their imported relatives, the horse chestnuts, are much 
different from the true chestnut but among them are some of our finest 
street and shade trees. They belong to a family which includes kinds 
that are large, some that are medium-sized or small, and some that are 
only shrubs. They are notable for their dense foliage of large toothed 
leaves, their upstanding showy "candles" of flowers in spring, and their 
peculiar fruit or nuts. The flowers are white, yellow, red or varicolored, 
according to the species. The leaves, growing upon thick branchlets 
which have no fine twigs, have from 3 to 9 large leaflets set upon the 
end of a long stem like the spread fingers of a human hand .

There are several species of buckeyes native in the United States. Best 
known is the Ohio Buckeye found on the west slopes of the 
Appalachians and through the Ohio and Mississippi valley regions. 
There are a few along Thorn Creek in the southeastern corner of Cook 
County. It is the state tree of Ohio, the Buckeye State. It is also called 
the Fetid Buckeye because the twigs, leaves and even the bark, when 
bruised, have a disagreeable odor. Generally, the tree is of medium 
height but there are reports of unusual specimens about 100 feet tall and 
4 feet in diameter. The leaves have 5 long oval leaflets with long points. 
The pale yellow-green flowers are in dense branched upright dusters 
which stand from 4 to 6 inches in height. The fruit has a warty brown 
shell which encloses from 1 to 3 shiny mahogany-colored seeds usually 
an inch or more in diameter. The tree probably got its common name, 
buckeye, from the fact that the nut, on one side, has a large pale-colored 
spot and is presumed to resemble the eye of a deer.

These seeds have a very disagreeable taste and are said to be poisonous, 
although hogs sometimes eat them and in pioneer days they were 
ground and mixed with soft soap to make a medicine which was 
supposed to be a remedy for hog cholera. There were also superstitions 
that carrying a buckeye in one's pocket brought good luck and warded 
off rheumatism. When ground and baked, they make an excellent 
library paste. Buckeye wood is very light, soft, weak and white -- 
resembling basswood and as easily worked. Following the Civil War, it 
was much used for making artificial limbs and caskets. Its principal uses 
now are for wooden ware, drawing boards, crates, boxes and paper 
pulp.

The Yellow Buckeye, or Sweet Buckeye, is not as widely distributed 
but is very similar. It lacks some of the disagreeable odor of the Ohio 
buckeye; its flowers are yellow and more showy; and its seeds are 
enclosed in a smooth shell. In our southern states there are other native 
buckeyes which are small trees or shrubs with handsome flowers of 
deep red, red and yellow, or scarlet and yellow.

Several kinds of horse chestnuts have been introduced into the United 
States, including some from Japan, China, and the Himalayas. The 
Common Horse Chestnut, which lines the boulevards of Paris, is a 
native of Greece and Bulgaria. It was brought to this country at an early 
date and has been extensively used as a shade tree and street tree. It has 
a very symmetrical shape and its flowers, which are white tinged with 
red, grow in clusters from 8 to 12 inches tall. Its leaf has from 5 to 7 
leaflets and the fruit is similar to that of the Ohio Buckeye.

Small boys like buckeyes for slingshot ammunition.