Friday 19 October 2012

Aesculus hippocastanum - Horse chestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum - Horse chestnut


 I found the horse chestnut in All Saints Park, adjacent Oxford road in Manchester. They can reach heights of up to 25 meters (82 feet) in full maturity. This particular specimen has a disease caused by a horse chestnut leaf mining moth.


The bark can crack off in long plates, at full maturity the trees bark will turn brown, becoming flakey and rough.


Clear example of the disease, the larva of the leaf mining moth mines into the trees leaves leaving noticeable brown fragile patches.
Leaves are palmate and separate into oval shaped leaflets.


These leaflets can grow up to 25 cm long.


The fruit of the tree (commonly known as a conquer) fall at the end of September, they have a green spiky surface that contain 1-3 nuts inside.

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