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Aesculus flava - Sol.

Sweet Buckeye

Author	Sol.	Botanical references	11, 43, 200
Family	Hippocastanaceae	Genus	Aesculus
Synonyms	Aesculus lutea - Wangenh. Aesculus octandra - Marshall.
Known Hazards	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[K].
Range	Eastern N. America - Pennsylvanica to Tennessee and west to Ohio.
Habitat	Rich river-bottoms and mountain slopes[82]. Woodland on moist rich soils[43]
Edibility Rating	4 (1-5)	Medicinal Rating	0 (1-5)

Physical Characteristics

A decidious Tree growing to 20m by 8m.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats

Woodland Garden; Canopy;

Edible Uses

Edible Parts: Nectar; Seed.

Seed - cooked. Said to be as sweet as a chestnut[105, 177]. We have only eaten the immature seed, harvested in late August, but these were very tasty with no noticeable bitterness[K]. The seed can be up to 45mm in diameter and is easily harvested[82]. It can be dried, ground into a flour and used as a gruel. The seed contains saponins and needs to be leached of these toxins before it becomes safe to eat - the North American Indians would do this by slow-roasting the nuts (which would have rendered the saponins harmless) and then cutting them into thin slices, putting them into a cloth bag and rinsing them in a stream for 2 - 5 days[213, 229]. The resulting product is said to be tasty and nutritious[229], though most of the minerals etc would have been leached out[K]. The flowers contain a sweet nectar which is delicious when sucked out[245].

Medicinal Uses

Plants For A Future can not take any responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. Always seek advice from a professional before using a plant medicinally.

None known

Other Uses

Soap; Wood.

Saponins in the seed are used as a soap substitute[169]. 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[K]. Wood - very soft, light, close grained, difficult to split. It weighs 27lb per cubic foot[235]. It is used for making artificial limbs, wooden ware, pulp etc, and is occasionally sawn into lumber[46, 62, 82, 171].

Cultivation details

Prefers a deep loamy well-drained soil but is not too fussy[1, 11]. Grows best in eastern and south-eastern areas of England probably needing a continental climate in order to thrive[126, 200]. Although the trees are very hardy when dormant, the new growth can be damaged by late spring frosts[11]. Plants grow well in a woodland situation, tolerating shading by larger trees[229]. Seedlings grow away quickly, the plants reaching maturity when about 60 - 80 years old[229]. The form Asculus flava vestita (Sarg.)Fern. is growing well at Kew Gardens. It has been seen with large crops of fruit on a number of occasions, even in cooler summers. These fruits have only been tried when immature (harvested at the end of August) but were then very tasty with no bitterness[K]. Fruits are produced more abundantly in warm summers[130]. Most members of this genus transplant easily, even when fairly large[11].

Propagation

Seed - best sown outdoors or in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe[11, 80]. The seed germinates almost immediately and must be given protection from severe weather[130]. The seed has a very limited viability and must not be allowed to dry out. Stored seed should be soaked for 24 hours prior to sowing and even after this may still not be viable[80, 113]. It is best to sow the seed with its 'scar' downwards[130]. If sowing the seed in a cold frame, pot up the seedlings in early spring and plant them out into their permanent positions in the summer.

Links

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[11] Bean. W. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. Murray 1981
A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures.

[43] Fernald. M. L. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950
A bit dated but good and concise flora of the eastern part of N. America.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[62] Elias. T. and Dykeman. P. A Field Guide to N. American Edible Wild Plants. Van Nostrand Reinhold 1982 ISBN 0442222009
Very readable.

[80] McMillan-Browse. P. Hardy Woody Plants from Seed. Grower Books 1985 ISBN 0-901361-21-6
Does not deal with many species but it is very comprehensive on those that it does cover. Not for casual reading.

[82] Sargent. C. S. Manual of the Trees of N. America. Dover Publications Inc. New York. 1965 ISBN 0-486-20278-X
Two volumes, a comprehensive listing of N. American trees though a bit out of date now. Good details on habitats, some details on plant uses. Not really for the casual reader.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[113] Dirr. M. A. and Heuser. M. W. The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation. Athens Ga. Varsity Press 1987 ISBN 0942375009
A very detailed book on propagating trees. Not for the casual reader.

[126] ? The Plantsman. Vol. 6. 1984 - 1985. Royal Horticultural Society 1984
Excerpts from the periodical giving cultivation details and other notes on some of the useful plants including Actinidia and Wisteria species.

[130] ? The Plantsman. Vol. 4. 1982 - 1983. Royal Horticultural Society 1982
Excerpts from the periodical giving cultivation details and other notes on some of the useful plants, including Distylium racemosum and some perennial members of the family Berberidaceae.

[169] Buchanan. R. A Weavers Garden. 0
Covers all aspects of growing your own clothes, from fibre plants to dyes.

[171] Hill. A. F. Economic Botany. The Maple Press 1952
Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some a bit of detail about the plants it does cover.

[177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169
An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of latin names with a brief list of edible parts.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[213] Weiner. M. A. Earth Medicine, Earth Food. Ballantine Books 1980 ISBN 0-449-90589-6
A nice book to read though it is difficult to look up individual plants since the book is divided into separate sections dealing with the different medicinal uses plus a section on edible plants. Common names are used instead of botanical.

[229] Elias. T. The Complete Trees of N. America. Field Guide and Natural History. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. 1980 ISBN 0442238622
A very good concise guide. Gives habitats, good descriptions, maps showing distribution and a few of the uses. It also includes the many shrubs that occasionally reach tree proportions.

[235] Britton. N. L. Brown. A. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada Dover Publications. New York. 1970 ISBN 0-486-22642-5
Reprint of a 1913 Flora, but still a very useful book.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers Comments

Plants for a Future does not verify the accuracy of reader comments, use at your own risk. In particular Plants For A Future can not take any responsibility for any adverse effects from the use of plants. You should always consult a professional before using plants medicinally.

Aesculus flava

Mike Creel Tue Oct 26 20:14:56 1999

Rich, I e-mailed you area about the toxicity of buckeyes. Dr. Duke is an authority in this area. This information should be useful to you.

From: Jim Duke[SMTP:jimduke@cpcug.org]

> Hi Mike; being as sweet as dosen't make it edible.

> I have for the first time in my life a chestnut and a horsechestnut (really I'm growin a local ornamental Aesculus which set seed). harvested in my own yard. I won't eat but one of them.

> I treat all Aesculus as poisonous and think the europeans who are selling horse chestnut are downplaying the poisonous natures.

Note from Rich: detailed information on the active ingredients of this plant have been snipped. You can detailed info at Ethnobotany Database or one of the other online database mentioned above.

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