tree of the month Belfast Botanic Gardens

Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens

Tree of the month series - this series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is compiled by members of the Friends group and Gardens staff. The series will gradually build up to a comprehensive archive of information about the trees in Belfast Botanic gardens. Each article will illustrate the tree in Belfast together with information from a range of sources elsewhere.

Click here for the current archive

Tree of the Month, June 2009

Aesculus hippocastanum and Aesculus x carnea

Horse chestnut and red horse chestnut

by Jonathan Pilcher

There are some significant specimens of horse chestnuts in Belfast Botanic Gardens. Along the western edge of the gardens (Colenso Parade) there are fine specimens of the white-flowered horse chestnut - the conker tree of childhood. This tree is native to Greece and was introduced into Western Europe some time after 1600.

In the area to the side of the Tropical Ravine is a collection of the red horse chestnuts. Most of these are probably the hybrid H. x carnea. This is a cross between the white horse chestnut and the red buckeye (A. pavia). Buckeyes (Aesculus species) may be seen elsewhere in the Gardens and are the subject of a separate entry.

Horse chestnuts in the UK are currently under threat from two new diseases, one of which is a bleeding canker caused by a Phytophora fungus similar to that causing the sudden oak death and the other is a leaf miner.


Large horse chestnut on boundary of gardens.	Flower of horse chestnut

Red horse chestnuts near Tropical Ravine	Flower of red horse chestnut

Bleeding canker on horse chestnut trunk	Horseshoe-shaped leaf scar on horse chestnut branch