Aesculus californica

Aesculus californica (California Buckeye or California Horse-chestnut) is a species of buckeye endemic to California, and the only buckeye native to the state.

It is a large shrub or small tree growing to 4-12 m tall, with gray bark often coated with lichens or mosses. It typically is multi-trunked with a crown as broad as it is high.

The leaves are dark green, palmately compound with five (rarely seven) leaflets, each leaflet 6-17 cm long, with a finely toothed margin and (particularly in spring) downy surfaces. The leaves are tender and prone to damage from both spring freezing or snow and summer heat and desiccation.

The flowers are sweet-scented, white to pale pink, produced in erect panicles 15-20 cm long and 5-8 cm broad. The fruit is a fig-shaped capsule 5-8 cm long, containing a large (2-5 cm), round, orange-brown seed, the seeds are poisonous.

The California Buckeye has adapted to its native Mediterranean climate by growing during the wet winter and spring months and entering dormancy during dry summer and fall months; it begins the year's growth in early spring and begins dropping leaves by mid-summer.

This buckeye is found growing in a wide range of conditions from crowded, moist, semi-shaded canyon bottoms to dry south-facing slopes and hilltops.

It is also widely distributed in the state, growing along the central coast, in the foothills and lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada, up to 1700 m altitude and in the Cascade range.

In the coastal ranges north of Big Sur it is found growing alone on slopes or intermingled with Valley Oak, Oregon Oak, Coast Live Oak and California Bay Laurel.

In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada it can be found standing alone in grassland at the lowest elevations, intermingled in Blue Oak woodlands at intermediate elevations, and in mixed evergreen forests of Black Oak, Digger Pine, Ponderosa Pine and Interior Live Oak as it nears the limit of its range.




Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus_californica



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