A handsome Balkan deciduous tree with spectacular candle-like flower spikes and the polished brown seeds used in childrens "conker" games.
Where it grows
The horse chestnut is native to a small area of mixed mountain forests in the Balkan Peninsula — Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria — but has been planted as an ornamental across Europe and North America since the 16th century. It tolerates urban conditions but needs deep, moist soils.
How to recognise it
The large palmate leaves carry five to seven leaflets radiating from the stalk, and the buds in winter are large, sticky, and chestnut-brown. In spring the tree produces magnificent upright panicles of white flowers blotched with yellow and rose — the famous “candles.” Spiny green husks split open in autumn to release one or two glossy brown seeds.
Uses
Horse chestnuts are inedible to humans, but the seeds are gathered by generations of British children for conker fights. Extracts of the seeds (escin) are used in topical creams for circulation. The pale wood is light and rarely used outside of toys and small turnery.
Conservation
The leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella) has spread across Europe since the 1980s, browning leaves by midsummer and weakening trees. Together with bleeding canker disease this has reduced the species to Vulnerable in its native range.