Our Horse Chestnut Trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) have been flaunting their flowering pyramids recently, as the images here from yesterday show.
These unusual trees are native to the Balkans. They were imported into England in 1616, primarily for landscape use in towns and on private property. Soon after, they were being exported from England to Colonial America for the same uses.
The trees apparently were given the “Chestnut” name because of their similarities to the European Sweet Chestnut Tree (Castanea sativa), but these Horse varieties are not related to that tree. The European Sweet chestnuts are edible; the horse chestnuts are not.
As for that equine part of its name, there are two major stories. Most botanists reportedly say that the tree was called a “Horse” Chestnut because the Turks fed the tree’s seeds to cure coughing horses. Some people also say that they got that name because, when the trees’ leaves fall, they leave scars on their twigs that look like horseshoes with nail holes. (Brooklin, Maine)