California Buckeye (Plants of the Foothill College California Native Plant Garden)

California Buckeye

Aesculus californica

Family ³

SAPINDACEAE

Description ⁴

Deciduous shrub or tree reaches 12 m in height with a broad, rounded crown. The palmately compound leaves occur in leaflets of 5 to 7 and each leaflet is oblong-lanceolate and finely serrate. The inflorescence has many showy flowers in a panicle-like arrangement and it is erect, 1-2 dm. in length. Each individual flower has 4-5 petals and these are white to pale rose with 5-7 exserted stamens. The fruit is pear-shaped and smooth. The large, shiny light-brown seeds are 2-5 cm.

Community ³

Foothill Woodland

Flowering ³

May-Jul

Ethnobotany ³

Many indigenous groups utilized buckeye seeds for food, often when other plant food sources were scarce. These tribes included the Costanoan, Salinan, Kitanemuk, Serrano, Wappo, Sierra Miwok, Coast Miwok, Chumash, Kawaiisu, Northern Maidu among others. Frutis have to be leached but unprocessed, they were used as fish poison by Pomo, Yana, Yokut, Luiseno. (USDA fact sheet)

Garden Location ³

S, K

Associated species ³

Important nectar source for many butterflies (* Gold-Hunter's Hairstreak Satyrium auretorum (nectar) ASB * Coronis Fritillary Speyeria coronis (nectar) ASB * California Dogface Zerene eurydice (nectar) ASB) and also specific host for Echo Blue Celastrina ladon echo (host) ASB Farmer Skipper Ochlodes agricola (nectar) ASB Pipevine Swallowtail Battus philenor (nectar) ASB
hummingbirds (nectar)

Sequoia sphinx (Sphinx sequoiae) (host/ nectar)"
Nectar is poisonous to European honey bee; seeds are eaten by ground squirrels

Sources and Credits

(c) Steve Lew, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/61342216@N00/2475985929
(c) gillian360, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/1376744

More Info

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