HORSE SHIT

HORSE CHESTNUTS ARE NOT POISONOUS.
Read many books or use any search engine and you might believe that they were. They are rarely eaten and do not compare with Sweet Chestnuts that the French call Marron; famously in marron glacé. American Sweet Chestnuts are known for 'roasting o'er an open fire' when Jack Frost is nippin' at your nose.

     The genus name for Horse Chestnut and for the Buckeyes is Aesculus. At the family level it is kin to citrus, mangoe, maple and mahogany.
 Sweet Chestnut is Castanea and related to beech and oak.
 The nuts of Horse Chestnut are scarcely edible and would probably never be eaten unless in times of famine. They are less than choice as a food item but they are not poisonous. Children playing the ancient game of 'conkers' don't have the dentition to chomp chestnuts unless they have already mastered the art of chewing marbles.

Native Americans ate the nuts of Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra once the nuts were cooked. They would roast and peel them, mashing the flesh into a nutritional meal called Hetuk.

American farmers believe that Buckeyes are poisonous to cattle. Maybe so, since cows have no one to cook for them. If I was a farmer I too would be concerned about Buckeye nuts. These animals are expensive. Prices vary, but the last I checked a beef cow was worth around $1,500 and a dairy cow of good breeding could cost you between $1.800 and $3.000.   
Humans on the hoof are in over-supply and worth very little, if anything.

   Around the year 1900 a foreign fungus entered North America and within 40 years many millions of American Chestnut were gone, almost to extinction. Almost but not quite. Not yet.
 Mel Tormé's favourite chestnut is now 'off the menu' and has been replaced by Spanish and Chinese Chestnuts.

First we lost the American Chestnut then the American Elm and now we are losing the Ash to the Emerald Ash Borer. The 'Starry Night' Long Horn Beetle is a threat to many tree species. It is regretable that the public appear to know only a few familiar names such as, Crimson King Maple, Austrian Pine and  Colorado Spruce when there are so many handsome trees to choose from. As we begin to replace the Ash and more we must diversify and plant as many different genera and species as possible and avoid a monoculture that could all fall victim to the next plague that visits us.

Now that you know that the Horse Chestnut is not poisonous and that humans at least have nothing to fear from Buckeyes you can now consider them in your selectiion. They merit your attention.

Aesculus glabra
Ohio Buckeye



Aesculus pavia
Don't know why the Red Buckeye is called the Friday Flower
I'll take it any day of the week