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HORSE CHESTNUT
Aesculus hippocastanum
Mature
Horse chestnut trees are found throughout the Country Park and in
Hainault Lodge Reserve and there are many self set saplings. Several
mature trees can be found in the Farm area. The large sticky buds and
the horseshoe shape leaf scars are noticeable throughout the winter
and in the spring the terminal buds burst into leaf and the
inflorescence appears, which when in flower, decks the tree in
pinkish-white candles. The leaf is compound palmate with 5 or 7 deeply
serrated leaflets which are unstalked. The spiny seed case splits to
reveal a shiny conker. Stalked leaflets, red flowers and/or
spineless seed cases, if present, indicate varieties of Horse
chestnut. The fruit were collected in the autumn by schoolchildren for
a game of conkers, but is not played so much today. The Horse Chestnut
in the London Boroughs and particularly Redbridge is plagued with a
heavy infestation of a micro moth Cameraria ohridella. The long
term effects of this are at present being investigated by the Forestry
Commission. See Newspage
for more details and photos.
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