Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

On October 25, 2023, first-year students collected and planted seeds from red buckeyes in the arboretum. Approximately a month later, seedlings emerged from the dirt. Now, 16 months later, we see the first flowers! That's fast development.

Professor Rachel Johnson brought two groups of students to the arboretum for tours. The first group was from an 8 a.m. class. Students picked up 5 seeds and planted them in this spot, marked by the metal tag.

At minimum, three of the five seeds germinated. One plant remains, and it is short and wide, and it has one red panicle. 

This is full sun. Online literature says that red buckeyes can grow in full sun or shade, so this is one of our experimental spots for full sun conditions. The majority of our other buckeyes grow in part or full shade.

Students from Professor Johnson's noon class also planted 5 seeds. They were slower to germinate by just a week or two. Several seedlings emerged, and died back, and started again.

Today, we see two little plants. One is significantly larger than the other and it has one red panicle.

The arboretum has a steadily growing collection of red buckeyes. We are really hoping to draw in the ruby-throated hummingbirds with these clusters of pretty red flowers.

You can read more about the germination project on an earlier post, found here.

 

Education & Outreach

An academic arboretum has two purposes. In its fundamental and most basic role, such an institution serves as a repository for living specimens and the germplasm of plant species. If this goal has been accomplished, a secondary role can be achieved: showcasing these specimens to students and the public, with the intention of increasing knowledge about those trees, shrubs, and herbs. Because they exist in physical space and not as a description in a book or on a computer, the arboretum's cataloged specimens can be seen year-round and from 360 degrees. You can "zoom in" and look as close as you want. Can't find just the right photo of a tree? Go snap one yourself at the arboretum. If you like the organism enough, you may be able to collect some seed and start your own. Short of cutting the specimen down or doing permanent damage, every plant in the arboretum is part of an interactive experience; no screens involved.

In support of this ideal, today we'll show some photos of a recent arboretum tour that Centenary College's Visual Identity and Publications Manager Sherry Heflin was kind enough to photograph. Normally, photos of tours given at the arboretum are not available, since the curator cannot photograph herself while thinking, walking, and speaking. Perhaps the arboretum needs a very expensive autonomous drone with a nice lens for such occasions. Then again, Skynet drones might disrupt the ambience for a group that is supposed to be experiencing nature. 

 All photos below were taken by Sherry Heflin, on October 21, 2024.

The tour began in the oldest part of the arboretum, between Hamilton Hall and the Student Union Building. One of the four black metal arboretum signs marks the northern edge of the arboretum.

For a tour during the fall, fruits are a great topic. The arboretum has many different species of oaks growing in a small area, so it's easy to find acorns and compare them. These small acorns were collected under a water oak (Quercus nigra).

This big acorn was snipped from a Burr oak (Quercus macrocarpa).

Persimmons are ripe this time of year! Here, the arboretum curator holds an example of a perfectly ripe persimmon (Diospyros virginiana).

French mulberry fruits are also edible, but not recommended. These pretty purple fruits weren't as numerous in late October.

The arboretum curator displays the very small seeds of the redbud (Cercis canadensis).

In the arboretum, there are plenty of opportunities to play the game: 'Where's the tree? Where's the vine?'. Here, the arboretum curator points out bright red fruits hanging from a black cherry (Prunus serotina). The bright red fruits actually belong to a vine, Carolina moonseed (Cocculus carolinus).

Ouch! These spiny fruits were produced by the American chestnut hybrid, Dunstan (Castanea dentata).

The arboretum has numerous red buckeyes trees (Aesculus pavia). Here, a Centenary students opens a buckeye fruit, looking for the large seeds.

Buckeye seeds are shiny and look oily. What do you think they smell like?

Competition over resources wasn't the focus of this tour, but a few examples were pointed out. Here we have an interesting example. Two trees are shown here. Their trunks have grown together. The slender trunk, leaning toward the left, belongs to a black oak (Quercus velutina). It was intentionally planted. The big trunk, growing straight up, belongs to a southern red oak (Quercus falcata). The red oak volunteered a few years after the black oak was planted, and the red oak has out-competed the black oak for sunshine, water and nutrients.

Even what looks like a bare stick is worth talking about. At the beginning of the tour, the arboretum curator explains that these is the arboretum's original patch of Hercules-club (Aralia spinosa), planted in the old part of the arboretum, circa 1990. Only three spindly plants remain.

Later in the tour, the arboretum curator points out a thriving grouping of Hercules-club. Here, the curator stands among the Hercules-clubs, holding two trunks. These plants are younger, and yet they are significantly larger. Viewing these plants in person and walking through the landscape, we can easily start to formulate hypotheses.

There is always something to talk about in the arboretum. The landscape is always changing!

New Recruits: Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

In October, Dr. Rachel Johnson arranged tours of the arboretum for two classes of first-year students. The tours occurred on October 25th, a little more than a month ago. During both tours, students collected red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) seeds. At the conclusion of each tour, each group of students was encouraged to plant five seeds in two separate sunny spots on the grassy slope near Cline Hall. After planting, students hammered stakes in the ground to protect their germination projects and watered the seeds. The ground has remained damp since then. Now that we are at the end of November, seedlings are emerging!

 

Each planting location has its own sign. This one is for the seeds planted by students in the 8 o'clock class.

The planting sites are small, just big enough for five buckeye seeds. Two stakes protect the space. At first glance, it doesn't look like much is happening here.

If we stoop down to closely examine the soil surface, we can see our first seedling is up and on the verge of unfurling. It's already 4 inches tall! There are two other seedlings in this spot, just beginning to emerge from the dirt.

 

Not far from the 8 a.m. planting, the seeds planted by students in the 12 o'clock class have a space marked.

Interestingly, as of November 28th, this spot doesn't show any activity. The same planting procedures were followed for both classes, with only four hours separating their activity, so why would one planting of seeds germinate in advance of another? Of course, it could simply be the result of random seed variation. However, it should be noted that the two classes collected seeds from two different groupings of red buckeyes. The 8 a.m. class collected their seeds from the buckeyes planted in 1997; these small trees had fruits still attached, so the seeds were removed directly from the trees. By contrast, students in the 12 p.m. class collected seeds from the older, original grouping of buckeyes, planted in 1986. These seeds were picked up off the ground. So, while the planting procedures were nearly the same, the collection procedures were a little different. The seeds from the two different sources looked the same, so perhaps age has something to do with viability. Only time will tell.

 

 

 

Tree of the Week: Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

For two weeks, we have experienced daily high temperatures near or above 100℉, with no rain. Typically during the summer months, the arboretum's irrigation system keeps the plant life happy and green. Unfortunately, this year the irrigation system is having some mechanical difficulties. As a result, the landscape of the arboretum looks parched. Some leaves are shriveling, while others are turning colors and dropping. Our tree of the week is one such noticeable specimen.  

 

The red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) is a blog favorite. It draws our attention all year long. In the spring, it is one of the first trees to put out its leaves and lovely flowers. During the summer, the developing fruits draw ones attention; the fruits ripen and handsome seeds litter the ground in autumn; and early winter is a good time to plant those seeds, which readily germinate.

This week, the red buckeye pops out in the landscape because of its yellow-orange leaves. Pictured here is a small grouping of seedlings; the seeds were planted this past winter.

The orange leaves are a sign of the hot, dry weather conditions, but not necessarily a cause for concern for this particular species. Each year, with the beginning of the fall term, red buckeyes are one of the first trees to drop their leaves. Although, this is still a little too early.

In this grouping of buckeyes, the leaves are richly colored.

Red buckeyes have compound leaves, with five leaflets.

Although the leaves are turning color early, this leaf buds looks healthy.

These two buckeyes are 3½ years old. Their foliage is still partially green.

Their leaf buds look good.

 

This is another 3½ year old. It is mostly green.

 

And it even has fruit!

These leaf buds look good, too.

This is another 3½ year old. It's mostly green.

This 3½ year old, however, is all yellow.

And what's this? A freerider?

It's another sign of the season--a cicada exoskeleton that happens to be curled around a pair of red buckeye leaf buds. What a curious choice made by this "litterbug!"

Red Buckeye Update

On February 22nd, a red buckeye seedling was added to the arboretum catalogue, and it was discussed on the blog that same day. The seedling is pictured above. It was a particularly neat seedling because the buckeye seed was still visible, sitting on the ground. You can see those pictures here.

Just two days later, the leaves turned white and the little seedling looked like it was at death's door. What happened? An obvious issue was that conspicuous seed. Was it drying out? This was a possibility given the warm, dry weather that week, so, for the sake of the new recruit, the seed was covered with a mound of wet, black soil dug up from the edge of the upper pond

Perhaps that soil coverage did the trick because the seedling has already put out new leaves. Things are moving quickly this time of year in the arboretum. The red buckeye sprouted, died back, and was resurrected, all within the span of a month.

These new red leaves of the red buckeye were photographed on Sunday, March 12, 2023.

Tree of the Week: Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

 

The red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) thrives in the soil of the arboretrum. The original plantings are approximately 35-years-old and they produce an abundance of fruit that has successfully germinated, both as volunteers and intentional plantings. Below, we have pictures of a volunteer seedling and a three-year-old.

Do you see the bright red star shapes? Those are the first leaves of a red buckeye seedling. They stand out against the non-native green ground cover.

Here we see a volunteer red buckeye seedling that germinated near the original arboretum plantings. This past fall, the old copse again produced a bucket of buckeyes, and several volunteers have popped up in the grass and in the leaf litter.

This seedling germinated in a good location, far enough away from the original grouping, allowing for ample room to grow. It has been selected to officially join the arboretum collection

Interestingly, we can still see the seed! January was a very rainy month, and all of that precipitation  made it possible for this seed to germinate on top of the soil and produce a vigorous seedling.

The ground cover was trimmed back so that we could get a good look at the seed, which is firmly attached to the soil by the new roots. It will be quite interesting to see how long it takes for the seed to disintegrate and disappear. For our previous germination project, all seeds were covered in more than a couple of inches of soil, so we couldn't follow the progress of the seed itself, but in the case of this volunteer, the seed remains before us.

Our three-year-old red buckeyes, which were intentionally planted in a germination project, are leafing out right now. They are still small, and most of them are multi-stemmed. In this photo, we see two individuals, both multi-stemmed. Sadly, this season, one of the two ought to be removed so that the other will have plenty of room to grow.

Happily, our three-year-old red buckeyes are already trying to produce flowers. It's looking like an early spring. Hopefully it will also be a long spring.