Japanese horse chestnut
Aesculus turbinata · Sapindaceae · 칠엽수
How to spot it
Palmately compound leaves of 5-7 leaflets (the central leaflet about 30 cm long) with reddish-brown hairs beneath, upright panicles at the branch tips, 5 cm fruits splitting in three, and sticky brown winter buds.
(original photo, new tab)Leaf · Photo Qwert1234 · CC BY-SA 3.0 
(original photo, new tab)Leaf · Photo KENPEI · CC BY-SA 3.0 
(original photo, new tab)Bark · Photo KENPEI · CC BY-SA 3.0
Look
- Leaves
- Alternate palmately compound leaves with 5-7 leaflets; the central leaflet reaches 30 cm, with soft reddish-brown hairs beneath and doubly blunt-toothed margins.
- Flowers
- In June, panicles 15-25 cm long stand at the branch tips, bearing male and bisexual flowers together.
- Fruit
- The fruit is inverted-conical, 5 cm across, splitting into three, with one reddish-brown seed in each part; it ripens in October.
- Bark
- Bark is gray-brown, one-year-old twigs are reddish brown, and the winter buds are sticky.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Found in Japan.
- Ecology
- Shade-tolerant when young, but likes sun as it grows; weak against urban pollution and grows well in deep, fertile, moist sites south of the central region.