OHIO BUCKEYES: IT ALL DEPENDS

RIPENING BUCKEY NUTS

A REAL OHIO STATE FAN MAKES HIS SUV LOOK LIKE AN OSU FOOTBALL HELMET

PALMATELY COMPOUND LEAVES WITH FIVE LEAFLETS

Tuesday, 9:30 AM.  It is a bright, sunny day, cooler after a major storm with torrential rains yesterday afternoon.  A lot of ash trees have been removed from Columbus city streets,  killed by the Emerald Ash Borer.  The evidence of their demise is everywhere, in newly seeded areas where stumps have been ground.
   We being in Ohio, I thought it appropriate to do a post on the iconic Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra, in the Buckeye Family, the Hippocastanaceae.  It is a small tree native to the lower midwest of the US.  There are several other related species further east and south  (and one in California)  and several in Asia,  as well as the European horse chestnut, A. hippocastanaeum, most of which hybridize with each other, so there are many horticultural hybrids with different flower colors and other characteristics of the small family.  'Fort McNair' Buckeye is a beautiful hybrid we have been growing in Bayfield, but the jury is still out on its complete hardiness for us.  The hybrid 'Brioti' is very hardy but quite  large and spreading, and less suitable for use as a street tree.
   Buckeye's have palmately compound leaves, of five leaflets.  The iconic "buckeye" nut is encased in a spiny, spongy (at this point) pouch.  The nut is round, dark brown, and has a lighter "eye" which gives it its name.
   The champion football team is nicknamed The Buckeyes.  We saw an SUV decorated like an OSU football helmet, on I90
   The buckeye is the state tree of Ohio, and Ohio is "the buckeye state."  It is common for Ohioan's to carry a buckeye in their pocket for good luck, and for good measure it is claimed that doing so will cure rheumatism and such problems.  As  a former Ohioan I do so, and maybe both concepts work and maybe they don't.  It all depends.