Western buckeye

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Western buckeye

Western buckeye fruit

Western buckeye buds

Western buckeye leaf

Western buckeye flowers

Western buckeye inflorescence

Buckeye bark

Western buckeye

Buckeye buds

Buckeye

Western buckeye

Buckeye

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; bark of young trees smooth, pale yellow-brown; bark of mature trees scaly or flat-ridged, dark brown.

Twigs

Rigid, coarse, reddish-brown or grayish-brown; lenticels conspicuous; terminal bud conical, 2/5 to 1/2 inch long, reddish-brown.

Leaves

Opposite, deciduous, palmately compound, stalk 4 to 6.5 inches long, enlarged at base; leaflets 5-11, usually 7, elliptic, lanceolate or egg-shaped, 3 to 6 inches long, .6 to 2.4 inches wide; upper surface glabrous, shiny, dark green; lower surface paler, pubescent on veins to minutely hairy or woolly; margins entire at base, sharply toothed above; tip sharp-pointed or tapering to narrow point; leaflet stalks to 2/5 inch long. The number, shape and size of the leaflets can be quite variable.

Flowers

In panicle, cylindrical or pyramidal, 4 to 6 inches long, terminating main branches. Calyx broadly bell-shaped, 1/8 to 1/3 inch long, yellowish-green, 5-lobed; lobes, unequal, blunt, pink-tipped; corolla 2/5 to 7/10 inch long; petals 4, pale yellow, outside hairy; upper 2 petals erect or curved, with 2 orange spots inside; 2 lateral petals slightly shorter, with orange streak inside; stamens 7, curved, 1/2 to 4/5 inch long, extending beyond corolla; filaments hairy near orange anthers; style greenish, stigma red.

Fruit

Unevenly spherical, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, rust-colored; husk leathery, spiny, divided into 3-4 sections; seeds 1-4, irregularly spherical, nut-like, about 1 inch in diameter, smooth, glossy, dark brown with large, pale scar.

Ecology

Habitat

Stream banks, rocky wooded hillsides, lowland woods, and thickets in prairie ravines; moist, often calcareous soil.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Toxicity

The seeds are mildly poisonous with swine particularly susceptible. The leaves are poisonous to livestock. Clinical signs include staggering, trembling and legs splayed out like a sawhorse. These symptoms typically last 24 hours.

Uses

Native Americans ate the seeds after boiling or roasting. The seeds were ground and thrown into streams to poison the fish. There was also a superstition that carrying a seed in pocket would alleviate rheumatism.