About horse chestnut

 

Our familiar horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a native of the Balkans, and believed to have been introduced to Britain in the 1500s. It is particularly prized as an amenity tree in many parts of Europe, because of its striking flowers which can be seen in early June each year and its characteristic fruits – conkers – that are produced in September.  The game of conkers is no longer just a past-time of children but even played at international level.

GB population

The National Woodland Inventory of Woodland Trees estimates there are 470,000 horse chestnut trees in Great Britain:

• England: 432,000
• Scotland: 29,100
• Wales: 11,100.

However, most of these trees are situated in non-woodland situations. Horse chestnut is only a significant component of British woodland (defined for this purpose as areas over 2 hectares) in a few cases - 51 hectares in England and 25 hectares in Wales (none in Scotland).

Most of the horse chestnuts in Britain are probably not accounted for in any national tree census, but are common along streets, in parks and gardens.  Both planted and self-sown individuals also flourish along roadsides and in hedges.  Horse chestnuts are able to tolerate a wide range of conditions including dry sandy soils, wet clays and chalk, but prefers moist, well-drained soils. 

Further information on the distribution of horse chestnut in Britain is available via the National Biodiversity Network gateway.

Using horse chestnut

The wood of horse chestnut tends to be rather weak and for this reason has never been used widely, although it has absorbent properties which make it ideal for fruit racks and storage trays as it keeps the fruit dry and so prevents rotting.

Various extracts from horse chestnut leaves and fruits which contain the active ingredients aescin or aesculin are marketed as herbal remedies because of their anti-inflamatory properties.

Horse chestnut also has wildlife value: the nuts provide food for deer and other mammals and the flowers provide pollen for insects.

Other species

Apart from the horse chestnut which is the only Aesculus species native to Europe, there are twelve other species found throughout the northern hemisphere most of which are concentrated in eastern Asia, eastern USA.  There is also a single species native to western North America and another native to northwestern Mexico (Hardin, 1960).

Horse Chestnut – the genus Aesculus

Species of Hippocastanum	Common name	Native Range
A. hippocastanum	Horse chestnut	Bulgaria, N. Greece, S. Albania
A. x carnea	Red horse chestnut	Hybrids between A. hippocastanum and A. parva
A. turbinata	Japanese horse chestnut	Japan
A. californica	Buckeye	California, United States
A. parryi	Parry buckeye	California, Mexico
A. flava	Sweet or yellow buckeye	South east United States
A. glabra	Ohio buckeye	South east United States
A. parvia	Red buckeye	South east United States
A. parviflora	Dwarf buckeye	South east United States
A. sylvatica		South east United States
A. assamica		N. Siam, NW Indo-China, s. China, NE Pakistan, Bhutan
A. indica	Indian horse chestnut	NW Himalayas
A. chinensis	Chinese horse chestnut	China
A. wilsonii	Wilson's horse chestnut	Central China

Table compiled from: Bean (1925) and Forest et al. (2001).