Horse Chestnut – Aesculus hippocastanum (Mature)

Description

Horse Chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, is only for big gardens, parkland, and fields it is ideal for sheltering stock from the elements . They can grow to nearly forty metres in height and live for over three hundred years. They produce very big leaves, five to seven individual parts to the leaves making a fan shape on the end of the twigs. The candle like flowers mostly white but with some yellow and pink make the tree very attractive in the spring. The canopy of a mature tree is second to none with a massive domed shape. The fruit is of course a conker used by most school children in years past, maybe not now due to various reasons. Unfortunately the tree is affected by the leaf minor moth which makes the leaves go brown in the summer , the good news is that the larvae of the moth provides food for Blue Tits. It is definitely a tree we should persevere with for the environment, I understand that it is one of the best species of tree to take carbon from the atmosphere in the UK. It will grow well in most types of soil.