A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Aesculus arguta Buckl.

Modern name

Aesculus glabra var. arguta (Buckley) Rob.

A small tree or more commonly a low shrub, described by Sargent as having numerous small stems often made prostrate in autumn by the weight of the abundant fruits; shoots slender, downy. Leaves of seven or nine leaflets, which are elliptical to narrowly obovate, 3 to 6 in. long and often doubly toothed, usually more or less downy beneath at first. Flowers numerous in pyramidal panicles up to 6 or 8 in. long and half as wide at the base; petals pale yellow, nearly equal, oblong-obovate, each narrowed to a slender claw, downy outside; stamens usually seven, their stalks hairy; calyx bell-shaped, downy, pale yellow-green; ovary hairy. Fruit subglobose, one- to three-seeded; seeds chestnut-brown, 1 in. wide.

Native of E. Texas and an attractive hardy shrub, closely akin to A. glabra, but distinct in its dwarf habit and narrower longer-pointed leaflets. Discovered before 1860; introduced 1909. There is a specimen of 32 × 112 ft in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden (1968).



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

A. glabra var. arguta (Buckley) Robins.

The example at Edinburgh now measures 33 × 134 ft (1981).

Genus

Aesculus

Other species in the genus