A request that this article title be changed to Ohio buckeye is under discussion . Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
Ohio buckeye | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Sapindaceae |
Genus: | Aesculus |
Species: | A. glabra |
Binomial name | |
Aesculus glabra | |
Generalized natural range |
Aesculus glabra, commonly known as Ohio buckeye, [2] Texas buckeye, [3] fetid buckeye, [3] and horse chestnut [3] is a species of tree in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) native to North America.
Its natural range is primarily in the Midwestern and lower Great Plains regions of the United States, extending southeast into the geological Black Belt of Alabama and Mississippi. [4] It is also found locally in the extreme southwest of Ontario, on Walpole Island in Lake St. Clair. [5]
It is found in a variety of natural habitats, including streambanks, upland mesic forests, and along the margins of old fields. [6] It is typically found in calcareous areas. [7]
The leaves are palmately compound with five leaflets 8–16 cm (3–6+1⁄2 in) long and broad. The flowers are produced in panicles in spring, red, yellow to yellow-green, each flower 2–3 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄4 in) long with the stamens longer than the petals (unlike the related yellow buckeye, where the stamens are shorter than the petals). The fruit is a round capsule 4–5 cm (1+1⁄2–2 in) diameter, containing one nut-like seed, 2–3 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄4 in) in diameter, brown with a whitish basal scar.
The inedible seeds contain tannic acid and are poisonous to cattle and humans. The young foliage, shoots, and bark are also poisonous to some degree. [8] However, Native Americans reportedly did eat buckeye fruit after boiling it to extract tannin. [9]
The name stems from Native Americans, who called the nut "hetuck", which means "buck eye". The markings of the nut resembled the eyes of a deer. [10]
Aesculus glabra has little use as a timber tree due to its soft, light wood. [8] Although occasionally seen in cultivation, the large, copiously produced fruits make it generally undesirable as a street tree. [2] Extracts from A. glabra have shown anti-cancer properties. [11]
The Lenape carry the nuts in their pockets for rheumatism, and an infusion of ground nuts is mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams. [12] [13]
Native Americans blanched buckeye nuts, extracting the tannic acid for use in making leather.[ citation needed ] The nuts can also be dried, turning dark as they harden with exposure to the air, and strung into necklaces similar to those made from the kukui nut in Hawaii. [14]
The Ohio buckeye is the state tree of Ohio, and its name is an original term of endearment for the pioneers on the Ohio frontier. Subsequently, "buckeye" came to be used as the nickname and colloquial name for people from Ohio. [15] Ohio State University adopted "Buckeyes" officially as its nickname in 1950, and also uses the name for its sports teams. [16] It came to be applied to any student or graduate of the university. [17]
Buckeye candy, made to resemble the tree's nut, is made by dipping a ball of peanut butter fudge in milk chocolate, leaving a circle of the peanut butter exposed. [18] These are a popular treat in Ohio, especially during the Christmas and college football seasons. [19] [20]
Buckeyes (the nuts) are a recurring motif in Bill Watterson's comic, Calvin and Hobbes , often as one of Calvin's tools of torment. [21] Watterson himself grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. [22]
William Boyd Watterson II is an American cartoonist who authored the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. The strip was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson concluded Calvin and Hobbes with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his negative views on comic syndication and licensing, his efforts to expand and elevate the newspaper comic as an art form, and his move back into private life after Calvin and Hobbes ended. Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The suburban Midwestern United States setting of Ohio was part of the inspiration for the setting of Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio as of January 2024.
Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree Anacardium occidentale, in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as 14 metres, but the dwarf cultivars, growing up to 6 m (20 ft), prove more profitable, with earlier maturity and greater yields. The cashew nut is edible and is eaten on its own as a snack, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. The nut is often simply called a 'cashew'.
Buckeye may refer to:
Acer saccharinum, commonly known as silver maple, creek maple, silverleaf maple, soft maple, large maple, water maple, swamp maple, or white maple, is a species of maple native to the eastern and central United States and southeastern Canada. It is one of the most common trees in the United States.
The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1,858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee.
Aesculus pavia, known as red buckeye or firecracker plant, is a species of deciduous flowering plant. The small tree or shrub is native to the southern and eastern parts of the United States, found from Illinois to Virginia in the north and from Texas to Florida in the south. It is hardy far to the north of its native range, with successful cultivation poleward to Arboretum Mustila in Finland.
The genus Aesculus, with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species native to North America and seven to 13 species native to Eurasia. Several hybrids occur. Aesculus exhibits a classical Arcto-Tertiary distribution.
Juglans nigra, the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central Texas. Wild trees in the upper Ottawa Valley may be an isolated native population or may have derived from planted trees.
Corylus maxima, the filbert, is a species of hazel in the birch family Betulaceae, native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia.
Aesculus hippocastanum, the horse chestnut, is a species of flowering plant in the maple, soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large, deciduous, synoecious (hermaphroditic-flowered) tree. It is also called horse-chestnut, European horsechestnut, buckeye, and conker tree. It is not to be confused with the sweet chestnut or Spanish chestnut, Castanea sativa, which is a tree in another family, Fagaceae.
Aesculus flava, also known commonly as the common buckeye, the sweet buckeye, and the yellow buckeye, is a species of deciduous tree in the subfamily Hippocastanoideae of the family Sapindaceae. The species is native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. It grows in mesophytic forest or floodplains, generally in acid to circumneutral soil, reaching a height of 20m to 48m.
Carpinus caroliniana, the American hornbeam, is a small hardwood understory tree in the genus Carpinus. American hornbeam is also known as blue-beech, ironwood, musclewood and muscle beech. It is native to eastern North America, from Minnesota and southern Ontario east to Maine, and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida. It also grows in Canada. It occurs naturally in shaded areas with moist soil, particularly near the banks of streams or rivers, and is often a natural constituent understory species of the riverine and maritime forests of eastern temperate North America.
Calla is a genus of flowering plant in the family Araceae, containing the single species Calla palustris.
Carya cordiformis, the bitternut hickory, also called bitternut, yellowbud hickory, or swamp hickory, is a large hickory species native to the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. Notable for its unique sulphur-yellow buds, it is one of the most widespread hickories and is the northernmost species of pecan hickory. It is the shortest-lived of the hickories, living to about 200 years.
Aesculus californica, commonly known as the California buckeye or California horse-chestnut, is a species of buckeye native to California and southwestern Oregon.
Castanea pumila, commonly known as the Allegheny chinquapin, American chinquapin or dwarf chestnut, is a species of chestnut native to the southeastern United States. The native range is from Massachusetts and New York to Maryland and extreme southern New Jersey and southeast Pennsylvania south to central Florida, west to eastern Texas, and north to southern Missouri and Kentucky. The plant's habitat is dry sandy and rocky uplands and ridges mixed with oak and hickory to 1000 m elevation. It grows best on well-drained soils in full sun or partial shade.
Castanea mollissima, also known as the Chinese chestnut, is an Asian species of chestnut tree in the family Fagaceae.
Buckeyes are a confection made from a peanut butter fudge partially dipped in chocolate to leave a circle of peanut butter visible. Buckeyes are similar to peanut butter balls, which are completely covered in chocolate.
Pachira glabra is a tropical wetland tree in the mallow family, Malvaceae, native to eastern Brazil, where it grows along waterways. It is generally known by the nonscientific names Guinea peanut, French peanut, Saba nut, money tree, and lucky tree. It shares many of these common names with the similar P. aquatica.
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