Is this a buckeye? The tree is growing where my son lived in Cadillac Mi. He says the squirrels are crazy for them.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/25387.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1540607688)
More likely horsechestnut.
Isn't that a buckeye?
Looks like a sweet gum pod when they are green. Usually when they are brown the seed pores are all open so you see the holes.
I think we are well out of the range for sweetgum. He says it is a nut, it has heft.
Difference Between a Buckeye Nut & a Horse Chestnut | Sciencing (https://sciencing.com/difference-buckeye-nut-horse-chestnut-5523161.html)
Do you have a leaf available ?
I would say sweetgum also but I do understand that horse chestnuts have a husk on it also. Open it up and see if it looks like a Buckeye Horse Chestnut and buckeyes look alike but different hales
It's in range for horsechestnut. Buckeye just barely reaches lower Lower Michigan. Of course, it could be non-native. Do you have the VT tree app, Jeff? It's great. A big download, but worth it.
The only buckeye that I've ever seen, or at least that's what I was told they were, had a three lobed nut. The nuts inside were hard as rocks. This was in Texas and the tree was more like a large shrub. Never did get very big.
buckeye nut - Google Search (https://www.google.com.sa/search?q=buckeye+nut&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=UVjY-WIf67EBDM%253A%252C1uRjh-Ew8dykjM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQH5-F8H1RmSsJm3Zmqm_H1JVG6Jw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLuc3HkajeAhWvp4sKHUXWAZEQ_h0wHXoECAkQDQ#imgrc=UVjY-WIf67EBDM):
I would say it looks like sweet gum. Buckeye would not be quite so pointy, and a little lighter brown, But if it was buckeye you could peel off the outer shell and see the buckeye.
Sweetgum in my area has a more round ball and shorter spikes with a lot more of them. I had forgotten about the spines on the buckeye but now the fog is starting to lift and I'm recalling the immense pain from stepping on them.
It doesn't look like any of the sweetgum balls I've got at my house.....I hate those things. Once the gum balls dry out the spikes split in half at the base to drop the sand like seeds out.
Buckeye pods are much smoother. That looks like gum tree pod. I collected a bunch of gum pods and a friend cast them in colored resin. I sliced them off the cast cylinder and then turned them on the lathe to make pendant necklaces.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12704/pod_pendant.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1540781160)
Well if the squirrels love them its not sweet gum, theres nothing for them to eat.
Jeff, that is a horse chestnut. Buckeyes are a type of horse chestnut. Gene
I've got several of them,buckeyes .As a matter of fact several of the saplings from one tree are doing very well as I type in Flatrock Mich .at the home of an OSU fan .
The nuts can be in clusters within the same pod or single nuts .I suppose the squirrels eat them but I never paid much attention .I've got three varieties of hickory and 4 varieties of oaks as well as walnut so they have plenty of choices plus the vast corn fields .They are quite plump to say the least .
Yes, horsechestnut.
Must be a different species of horse chestnut/buckeye than I have. I have lots of buckeyes but all have a smooth outer shell. They look almost like a small pear before they open. Once open they look almost exactly like our Chinese chestnuts. Only way I can tell the 2 apart is the Chinese chestnuts have what looks like hair on the end of the nut.
Buckeyes were supposed to be good luck and help keep you from getting rheumatism or arthritis and such. Lots of old timers used to carry one.
Buckeye nuts are supposed to be poison to eat. We used to hear one side was okay and a squirrel knew which side as we'd sometimes find half eaten buckeyes on the place. My son's professor in one of his forestry classes told him that was a young squirrel who did not know better and he ate half then got sick and quit.
I cut some buckeye every year into half inch live edge boards, air dry them and plane one side and give them to my daughter and they use them at their annual cancer camp for wood burning classes as it is a soft white wood.
It is NOT a buckeye. If it were you would hear "Hang in Sloopy, Sloopy hang on" when you put it close to your ear.
Kinda like a seashell. Tho the buckeyes have made there mark up north for the last couple decades I don't think you are lucky enough to have your self a buckeye!!
Lmbo jk all in good fun... but seriously the putter layers would be pulling off and you would see the hard but we down here call a buckeye.
Sweetgum ball
This summer look at leaves if star shaped, crushed they smell like kerosene, got million of balls in my woods and yard, lawnmower loves them, son grew up learning to play golf by hitting them, I still say its sweetgum not buckeye. I also have a drive which I have planted with chestnut and buckeye and that is not either.
I know exactly what a sweet gum tree is. I've spent many days in the south with our beloved Mr. Tom who taught me how to identify many trees not native to my part of the country.
It's not a sweetgum.
Sweetgum balls have holes in them too. Not seeing that in the pic.
If its not a sweetgum then alien life form.
LMGTFY (http://bfy.tw/MWOu)
My bad, alien life form IDed, Horse chestnut! Its nice to learn something new and reprogram by 1952 model brain.