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Buckeye?

Started by RavioliKid, August 09, 2001, 08:38:51 PM

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RavioliKid

I know that Ohio is "the Buckeye State."

What can you tell me about buckeyes?

RavioliKid

Tom

Lifted from Ohio States web page

Buckeyes


Buckeye (Aesculus glabra)
  
The Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is a tree, native to Ohio and particularly prevalent in the Ohio River Valley, whose small, shiny, dark brown nuts with a lighter tan patch resembles the eye of a deer. Folk wisdom has it that carrying one in a pocket brings good luck. "Buckeyes" has been the official Ohio State school nickname since 1950, but it had been in common use for many years before as the Buckeye is the state tree.


  
Buckeye Leaves
This tradition of placing Buckeye Leaves on the Ohio State helmets started in 1968 when Woody Hayes and longtime trainer Ernie Biggs changed the look of the Ohio State uniforms. The new look included names on the back of the jerseys and a wide "Buckeye stripe" on the sleeves of the jersey believed to be the first of its kind in the sport of football.

Check out this U of Conn. URL http://www.canr.uconn.edu/plsci/mbrand/a/aesgla/aesgla1.html

The only other thing I know is that we don't have them in Florida :D

CHARLIE

Well Rav...since I'm not a tree exspurt,what you'll get from me is a true story.

Back in the late '60s, my wife, my ma and I were on a vacation and in the little village of Pigeon Forge,Tennessee (that was before it turned into a carnival like town). We saw a sign that read, "Hiking Trail", so we stopped and took a short hike. We saw what we thought were walnuts all over the ground. They were cracked open with only 1 of the two nuts eaten. We couldn't figure out why the squirrels would eat one nut and leave the other. So I picked one up and took a tiny nibble. My throat immediately got a raw feeling and it made me feel terrible. Later we stopped at a little cafe by the river and I was telling the owner about what I did and how it made me feel (my throat was still hurting). He told us that those weren't walnuts but that they were buckeyes. And the reason the squirrels only ate one nut of the two, was because one nut was poison and the other was not. I took a nip of the poison one they left. So, that is all I know about Buckeyes.....don't eat the nuts.:-/
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

CHARLIE

Excerpts from: Knowing Your Trees
by G.H. Collingwood & Warren D. Brush
published by the American Forestry Association.

YELLOW BUCKEYE
(Sweet buckeye, Large buckeye)
Aesculus octandra

This is the largest and most important of the seven native species of buckeye in the U.S. Only one other, Ohio Buckeye is of commercial value. Has a straight trunk with a small crown made up of pendulous branches. It attains heights of from 60 to 90 feet with diameters of 2 to 3 feet.

It prefers river bottoms and moist mountain slopes from SW Pennsylvania and Souther Ohio to southern Illinois south to northern Alabama, Georgia and western North Carolina north to West Virginia. In the northern part of it's range it grows mostly in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The palmately compound leaves are borne on a stem 4 to 6 inches long and made up of 5, rarely 7 long-pointed, finely toothed leaflets that are narrowed at the base, and are from 4 to 7 inches in length and 2 or 3 inches wide. In April and May, when the leaves are about half grown, the showy yellow flowers appear in 5 to 7 inch clusters. Each flower is from 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and has 4 petals. The two upper are longer and narrower than the two lower.

The smooth or slightly roughened fruit ripens in Sept. Nearly spherical, it measures from 2 to 3 inches in length and generally contains 2 pale brown, thin-shelled, nut-like seeds, 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Yellow buckeye is often called sweet buckeye because the fruit is sweet by comparison with that of the Ohio buckeye. It is not sweet enough to be eaten by man, but is eagerly sought by cattle and hogs.

The dark brown bark, about 3/4 inches thick is divided by shallow fissures and separates on the surface into small, thin scales. The wood is uniform in texture, generally straight-grained, weighs about 25 pounds to the cubic foot when air dry, weak when used structurally, soft and low in shock resistance.

Yellow Buckeye is used for crates and boxes, particularly food containers because the wood is odorless and tasteless, is white and light weight.
It is also used for hidden parts of furniture and for caskets and artificial limbs.

It grows rapidly, especially when young, but is short-lived, reaching maturity in 60 to 80 years.  
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

CHARLIE

Excerpts from: Knowing Your Trees
by G.H. Collingwood & Warren D. Brush
published by the American Forestry Association

OHIO BUCKEYE
(Fetid buckeye)
Aesculus glabra  

In the central area west of the Alleghenies, one of the first trees to leaf out. Resembles its larger and better known European relative, the horsechestnut.

It grows in fertile bottomlands and the borders of streams from Ohio to northern Alabama, and west into eastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

It is of medium size, ranging from 30 to 70 feet in height with a trunk seldom more than 2 feet in diameter. Except in the deep woods, the stem divides low to form an irregularly broad, rounded crown, with coarse, drooping branches, and reddish brown upcurved twigs. Both twigs and leaves are arranged oppositely. The yellow-green compound leaves consist of 5 or occasionally 7 lance pointed, oval leaflets, diverging palmately from a common point at the end of the long stem or petiole. Each leaflet is 3 to 6 inches long, with parallel veins leading from midrib to the finely toothed margin. In May or early June after the leaves have burst from the large shiny brown buds and have reached full size, stiff upright clusters of greenish yellow flowers appear at the ends of many of the upturned twigs. While some are perfect with a 5 lobed calyx, four petals, a pistil and 7 stamens, others on the same tree may have only a pistil, or the 7 stamens without a pistil. Their disagreeable fetid odor has led some to call this the stinking or fetid buckeye.

In spite of the inedible and possibly poisonous nature of the seeds of this and other members of the family, the name Aesculus is derived from esca, meaning food and is the ancient name for a kind of oak tree.

The ashy gray bark is densely furrowed and broken into large scaly flakes. On old trees it may be 3/4 inch thick. When bruised, or when the twigs are broken, these also give off a disagreeable odor. An extract of the bark has been used as an irritant of the cerebro-spinal system.

The white, close-grained wood weighs only 25 to 28 pounds to the cubic foot and like that of the larger yellow buckeye resists splitting, but at the same time is easily carved or whittled. It is used largely in the making of artificial limbs and the early settlers planed straight sections into long fine shavings with which to make summer hats. It is of so little commercial importance that there are no figures to show its estimated stand. It is sometimes used for woodenware, pulp, veneers and general construction.    
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

swampwhiteoak

QuoteWhat can you tell me about buckeyes?

There's no way they're gonna win the Big Ten this year...Oh, you mean the trees, well I see Tom and Charlie have already given you some info on that.

http://www.ohiosaf.org
Hit "Hetuch" on the buckeye leaf, go down to the middle of the page and hit "Why is Ohio known as the buckeye state?".  That'll answer WHY we're the buckeye state.

As an aside, many of us Ohio foresters aren't real fond of our state tree.  First thing to come out during timber stand improvement operations.  

RavioliKid

Thanks, everybody!

I now know 400% more than I previously knew about the ignoble buckeye.

 8)
RavioliKid

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