Yellow Buckeye

Aesculus flava

Dimensions:

• Height: 50’ - 90’

• Mature spread: 30’ - 50’

• Trunk Diameter: 2’ - 3’

Habitat and Range:

• prefers full sun to part shade and fertile moist soil

• found mostly in Eastern Kentucky, but also in some parts of the Bluegrass

Features:

• named for the resemblance of the nut to a male deer’s eye

• has five palmate, compound leaves

• the nuts do not have prickles or stinky twigs like the Ohio buckeye

• it is one of the first trees to leaf out in the spring

History:

• the nuts are legendary as a good luck charm

• Native Americans detoxified the nuts by soaking and roasting them

• bookbinders made a paste out of the toxic nuts to deter insects

• George Washington found the nuts in West Virginia and planted them at Mt. Vernon

• the wood was used in the past for artificial limbs, because it is light and does not split easily