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quotChestnutquot sidebyside comparison Horse and Sweet
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Side-by-side gallery of Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut) versus Castanea sativa (sweet chestnut). • Aesculus hippocastanum: • Aesculus hippocastanum - horse chestnut • Castanea sativa: • Castanea sativa - sweet chestnut • Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous, synoecious tree, commonly known as horse-chestnut or conker tree.This common name is reported as having originated from the erroneous belief that the tree was a kind of chestnut (though in fact only distantly related), together with the observation that eating the fruit cured horses of chest complaints despite this plant being poisonous to horses. • The seeds, especially those that are young and fresh, are slightly poisonous, containing alkaloid saponins and glucosides. Although not dangerous to touch, they cause sickness when eaten; consumed by horses, they can cause tremors and lack of coordination. Some mammals, notably deer, are able to break down the toxins and eat them safely. • Aesculus hippocastanum grows to 36 metres (118 ft) tall, with a domed crown of stout branches; on old trees the outer branches often pendulous with curled-up tips. The leaves are opposite and palmately compound, with 5–7 leaflets; each leaflet is 13–30 cm long, making the whole leaf up to 60 cm across, with a 7–20 cm petiole. The leaf scars left on twigs after the leaves have fallen have a distinctive horseshoe shape, complete with seven nails . The flowers are usually white with a small red spot; they are produced in spring in erect panicles 10–30 cm tall with about 20–50 flowers on each panicle. Usually only 1–5 fruit develop on each panicle; the shell is a green, spiky capsule containing one (rarely two or three) nut-like seeds called conkers or horse-chestnuts. Each conker is 2–4 cm diameter, glossy nut-brown with a whitish scar at the base. • Castanea sativa or sweet chestnut is a species of flowering plant in the family Fagaceae, native to Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived deciduous tree, it produces an edible seed, the chestnut, which has been used in cooking since ancient times. • The tree is commonly called the chestnut , or sweet chestnut to distinguish it from the horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum, to which it is only distantly related. Other common namesinclude Spanish chestnut , Portuguese chestnut and marron (French for chestnut ). The Latin sativa means cultivated by humans . • The species is widely cultivated for its edible seeds (also called nuts) and for its wood. C. sativa was probably introduced to the region during the Roman occupation. • C. sativa attains a height of 20–35 m (66–115 ft) with a trunk often 2 m (7 ft) in diameter. The bark often has a net-shaped (retiform) pattern with deep furrows or fissures running spirally in both directions up the trunk. The oblong-lanceolate, boldly toothed leaves are 16–28 cm (6–11 in) long and 5–9 cm (2–4 in) broad. • The flowers of both sexes are borne in 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long, upright catkins, the male flowers in the upper part and female flowers in the lower part. In the northern hemisphere, they appear in late June to July, and by autumn, the female flowers develop into spiny cupules containing 3-7 brownish nuts that are shed during October. The female flowers eventually form a spiky sheath that deters predators from the seed.[4] Some cultivars ('Marron de Lyon', 'Paragon' and some hybrids) produce only one large nut per cupule, rather than the usual two to four nuts of edible, though smaller, size. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculus... • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castanea...
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