Glorious Trees in Our Neighborhood: Horse Chestnut

The beautiful Spring flowers on the Horse Chestnut trees are an important source of pollen for bees.

As I write this, the Horse Chestnut trees in Beacon Hill Park and along many of our lovely streets in James Bay are in full, glorious bloom. Their flowers are hard to miss as they stick up like giant candlesticks on these huge trees. It’s so fascinating to look closer to see the details of these wonderous flowers…so elegant and orchid-like with shades of white, dots of deep pink and bits of yellow. So beautiful! Perhaps it’s because they’re originally from Greece and the Mediterranean.

These magnificent trees are truly spectacular all year round: Spring with their heavenly blossoms which are a great source of pollen for bees, Summer with their giant canopies of green leaves providing lots of cooling shade, Autumn with their spiky fruits with seeds called conkers and lovely yellow/ burgundy leaves, and Winter with their bare branches letting us admire their incredible bark patterns and birds’ nests.

See the incredible patterns in the bark of Horse Chestnut trees. Great for rubbings and drawing inspiration!

As an artist, I love to make tree bark rubbings and the bark on old Horse Chestnut tree trunks is amazing to make rubbings of. Try it by simply pressing a piece of paper to the trunk of a tree and go over it with a crayon or charcoal. Lovely pattern, eh?

Why are they called Horse Chestnut trees? In the 16th century, Turkish soldiers used to give horse chestnuts to their horses to cure them of cough and other ailments. And if you look closely at a twig from a Horse Chestnut tree, you’ll find tiny horseshoes complete with little nails. So cute!

To identify a Horse Chestnut tree, look for little horseshoes with nails on its twigs.

Another name for these trees is Buckeyes. And if you look at a chestnut that’s just starting to open up, you’ll see that it does indeed look like a buck’s eye/ eye of a deer.

Drawing of a Horse Chestnut spiky fruit (also known as a Buckeye) with conker/seed inside by Helga Strauss. Do you think it looks like the eye of a deer?

Please keep in mind that all parts of the Horse Chestnut tree are okay to touch but toxic if ingested. Never let your dog eat the seeds/ conkers. But deer and squirrels love to feast upon these big seeds, which are excellent sources of protein and fat. In fact, squirrels like to “store them for later” by burying them in the ground which is how some seedlings end up sprouting.

You know how I mentioned their giant canopies of leaves? When they were introduced to the rest of Europe in the 16th century, they quickly became a popular favourite. In fact, if you go to Germany and enjoy their heavenly beer gardens, you may notice that you’re sitting under Horse Chestnut trees. That’s because before refrigeration, beer was stored in underground caverns to keep it cool. Horse Chestnut trees have somewhat shallow roots and giant canopies of shade…. a perfection combination for beer gardens.

Helga loves sharing her passion for trees on her fun, illuminating Tree Tours of Beacon Hill Park. Here she is under the Horse Chestnut trees near the Cameron Bandshell.

Speaking of giant canopies… Horse Chestnut trees typically live for a few hundred years. But the oldest one in Sicily, Italy is believed to be 3-4,000 years old! There have been countless songs and poems written about this tree over the centuries. It’s called the Hundred Horse Chestnut because there is a legend about the Queen of Aragon and her 100 knights on horseback taking shelter under this one massive tree during a thunderstorm. Yes, it’s that huge! And that same tree was described in 1611 as having a trunk the size that could hold 30 horses inside it! Wow!

Medicinally, extract from Horse Chestnut seeds helps promote blood flow and can be found in some medications treating varicose veins, bruises and hemorrhoids. The leaves are used in treating eczema, arthritis and joint pain. And the bark is used to treat malaria and dysentery. What a healing tree!

You can find an abundance of spectacular Horse Chestnut trees in Beacon Hill Park (many are over 100 years old), including along Chestnut Row near the Children’s Farm.

And did you know that for hundreds of years, people from Europe and North America have carried Horse Chestnut seeds in their pockets as good luck charms? It was thought that just carrying one in your pocket could bring good luck, cure headaches and more. Perhaps you’ll want to collect a few conkers this Autumn and give them as good luck gifts to your loved ones?

See you under our glorious Horse Chestnut trees in all seasons!

This article was originally published in the James Bay Beacon newspaper in June 2024. Helga Strauss is an artist, art teacher, therapeutic arts practitioner, and tree lover… find her at HelgaStrauss.com. Join her for fun, playful art classes and tree tours of our beloved Beacon Hill Park!