How do you recognise Red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea)?

Leaf

David J. Stang, Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Red horse chestnut

Aesculus x carnea Hayne

Family: Sapindaceae

15 to 20 m tall

Planted as a specimen or in avenues in parks and public gardens for its colourful flowering

Flowering: May

Full sun

Part shade

Hardy to about -20°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

This hybrid between the horse chestnut and an American buckeye almost never produces viable seed, which explains why it is only found planted, propagated by grafting.

🍃 Leaves

Deciduous, palmate, 5 to 7 toothed leaflets, dark green

🌸 Flowers

Large upright pyramids of pink to coral-red flowers, smaller than those of the horse chestnut

🍎 Fruits

Capsule with few or no spines, less bristly than that of the horse chestnut, containing one to two conkers

🪵 Bark

Greyish, cracking slightly with age

🗺️ Distribution

Horticultural hybrid that arose in Europe in the early 19th century between the horse chestnut and an American buckeye

🐝 Value for pollinators

Nectar-rich flowers visited by bees and bumblebees

✂️ Horticultural uses

Planted for its pink to red flowering, rarer than the white of the horse chestnut, in urban avenues or as a specimen

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Seeds (conkers) toxic if ingested, as in the horse chestnut

🌱 Known cultivars

'Briotii'

The cultivar 'Briotii' produces darker red and more abundant flowers than those of the typical hybrid, gathered in large, well-filled panicles.

🌿 Other Sapindaceae to discover

Sycamore maple

Acer pseudoplatanus

Horse chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.

🌱 This database is constantly evolving — species and information are added and corrected regularly. Spotted a mistake? Report it below.