Pacific Horticulture | California Buckeye: A Tree for All Seasons (2024)

FAQs

Do buckeye trees lose their leaves early? ›

California Buckeye, Aesculus californica, is always ahead of the season,… first to leaf out in late Winter, first to lose its leaves in summer, surprisingly, making it look quite dead in Fall.

This deciduousness among evergreens is intrinsic to the buckeye magic. Their deciduous leaves are relatively expansive, thin, and short-lived, lacking the durability or waxy coatings of bay or live oak leaves that might keep in the more limited moisture during the long months of drought.

Choose A Location

Buckeye trees need full sun to partial shade in order to thrive. Avoid planting your tree in an area that is too shady, as this can lead to the tree becoming leggy and weak.

Seedlings can grow under some shade, but the species seems to develop best as isolated individuals in openings along streambanks and on other moist sites. Young trees show moderate growth rates and may begin producing fruit at 8 years. Most trees live 80-100 years.

The Buckeye's Place in History

As well as the belief in the good fortune of its storied seed, the buckeye has been held to cure rheumatism and other, more minor ailments. Pioneering farm families also made soap from the kernels of buckeye seeds, and many a child's cradle was carved from the wood of this tree.

The tree's blossoms are poisonous to honey bees. Bees are attracted to them and forage on them, but the end result of the food provisions to the colony can be deformed larval development. We've seen bee hives within a quarter of a mile of California buckeyes (Aesculus californica).

Oaks and beech trees are particularly persistent trees in that they consistently hold on to their leaves well into the winter and often until the next year's new growth pushes the old leaves off.

While gray squirrels and other animals do eat buckeyes, it is never a preferred food. In fact, both the seeds and tender young leaves of the plant are said to be poisonous to humans and livestock alike. Humans have long made use of the red buckeye.

California buckeye is appreciated in the landscape as a native, water-wise, ornamental.

Culture: Red buckeye can be grown in shade or full sun, although its growth is shrubby and open in shade. It does well in all soil textures, and prefers a moist, well-drained soil that is slightly alkaline to acidic. It grows best in good, rich soil.

Are buckeyes poisonous to dogs? ›

The most toxic chemical in the buckeye are glycosides, especially a saponin called aesculin and a narcotic alkaloid. These toxins are in the entire tree, including the leaves, nuts, bark, and shoots. They are poisonous to dogs and can produce intestinal symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea.

Depending on growing conditions, Ohio buckeye trees will begin producing nuts in 5 to 10 years. If you are in a hurry to harvest nuts from your own Ohio buckeye tree, you might consider skipping the seed-planting process and head straight to a local garden center. Fall is a great time to plant a tree.

Do deer eat buckeyes? No, they don't. Buckeyes are poisonous to ruminants like cattle, so deer are not far behind. Buckeyes are also toxic to humans and many other animals, so you need to consider the drawbacks before choosing to cultivate them.

Native Americans used buckeye seeds to retrieve fish by grinding up seeds and throwing them in the water to stun the fish.

Seedlings should be ready to plant outside by mid-May after the last frost. While Buckeye nuts can be planted directly in the soil outdoors in autumn, starting them indoors will prevent squirrels from digging up the nuts before they germinate next spring.

Trees drop their leaves early for a variety of reasons. Leaves that have been infested with insects or diseases will, often, drop early. The maple in my yard has disease tar spot, which is causing the leaves to drop now. Pests like scales, mites and white flies can also cause early defoliation.

Aesculus californica is summer deciduous, sometimes defoliating in early July, and it is the first tree leafing out each year. It grows during the wet winter and spring months when its neighbors are dormant, and enters dormancy in mid to late summer. In cooler coastal climates, the leaves may last through mid-autumn.

Leaf blotch, in which leaves develop discolored spots that change to brown, is serious. It is also susceptible to powdery mildew, leaf spot, wood rot, anthracnose, canker, walnut scale, comstock mealybug, white-marked tussock moth, Japanese beetle, bagworm and flat-headed borer.

The buckeye tree's virtues extend beyond state pride and gridiron greatness with its greenish-yellow spring flowers, pumpkin-orange leaves in autumn, and eventually buckets of those shiny brown Buckeye nuts.