Back to Map
Yellow Buckeye
#6081 | Aesculus flava
Look for: Gray/brown bark with flat plates comprising old trunks, dark green leaves (5-leaflets)
Origin: Eastern North America
Back to Map
Look for: Gray/brown bark with flat plates comprising old trunks, dark green leaves (5-leaflets)
Origin: Eastern North America
The Yellow Buckeye grows to a height of 60–75' and a spread of around 30' at maturity. Of the large North American buckeye trees, the Yellow Buckeye is considered to be the best. In May it bears half foot long panicles of yellow flowers that produce brown, nutlike “buckeyes” at the end of the summer. In the fall, the palmate, compound leaves turn a pleasing pumpkin orange.
As well as the belief in the good fortune of its storied seed, the buckeye has been held to cure rheumatism and other, more minor ailments. Pioneering farm families also made soap from the kernels of buckeye seeds, and many a child's cradle was carved from the wood of this tree. Before the advent of synthetic materials, the wood was used to make artificial limbs because of its light weight and resistance to splitting.
USDA Zones 4-8
