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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
