Horsing Around
The Big Tree with the Beautiful Nut
When I was but a wee lad romping around the neighborhood with my pals, one of the highlights of the year was collecting and throwing horse chestnuts. We threw them at each other, at targets, at passing cars. What else do you expect little boys to do? Now, as a somewhat mature adult, I still enjoy the fall of horse chestnuts. I no longer throw them and instead think of them as a sign of autumn, particularly as cool temperatures and moisture returns, as it did last week. Thankfully!
Horse chestnuts have long been a favorite tree in the Seattle landscape, at least in the built environment. Famed park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (or Fred as I call him) was partial to them and often placed them in his greenspaces, including one on the grounds of the US Capitol (in 1874) that is still alive. The seed didn’t fall far and his stepson John Charles Olmsted (well-known as the designer of Seattle’s early park system) also favored the trees, particularly in Volunteer Park, on the UW campus, and along Ravenna Boulevard. Some of these date back to the early 1900s.
Native to the Balkan peninsula (where it grew in forests, generally not to the great age (300 plus) that they obtain in cities), horse chestnuts first began to be cultivated outside their home territory in the late 1500s. By the 1800s, they were widespread in urban areas, favored because of their majesty, lovely and abundant flowers, the shade they create, and the childish joy provided by their nuts. As happens in Seattle, the trees were planted often as allées, sometimes running for blocks. (Not everyone favors the trees; in 2021, King County listed them as a “Weed of Concern” and encourages their control.)
Horse chestnuts are far more than simply beautiful trees; they apparently have efficacious powers and extracts from the nuts and barks have been used as a treatment for a wide range of issues, such as catarrh and cancer. Or you can opt for a long-favored option; put one in your breeches, which should give an idea of how recently the medicinal benefits were popular, and the little tree nugget will prevent rheumatism (but so would, some held, reading Job). Others prophesied that said nut in your breeches would bring good luck, as well. If you didn’t want to be a nut bearer, you could “get a horse chestnut from the burr that hangs on the top limb of a tree and plant it in a graveyard,” and this would bring good luck. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine if all you had to do was plant the seed or whether you had to do something after it sprouted. You’ll just have to figure out for yourself.
No matter the use of the nuts or barks or leaves, horse chestnuts are a splendid urban tree, particularly along streets. Much has been written about the benefits of trees in the cityscape, including cleaning the air and providing habitat for our winged, furred, and multi-legged neighbors. Trees also provide psychological benefits. As I have written before, I have often found contentment and joy because of the Douglas firs in our backyard. But I also have a similar feeling with horse chestnuts around Seattle. When I pass through an allée of these beautiful trees, I feel as if I have entered an arboreal cave, which always enchants me and makes me smile.
Word of the day - Old Chestnut - There’s quite a bit of dispute as to the origin of the phrase but one widely noted origin point may be this. In 1816, playwright and theatrical manager William Dimonda wrote Broken Sword, which contained this exchange:
Zavior: At the dawn of the fourth day’s journey, I entered the wood of Collares, when suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork tree—
Pablo: (Jumping up.) A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut.
Zavior: Bah! you booby, I say, a cork.
Pablo: And I swear, a chesnut—Captain! this is the twenty-seventh time I have heard you relate this story, and you invariably said, a chesnut, till now.
Zavior: Did I? Well, a chesnut be it then.
David: Hold onto a few horse chestnuts. This old buckeye would love to challenge you to a game of "Conkers." https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Conkers/ It's a bit like marbles-using a horse chestnut suspened on a string to strike and destroy your opponent's conker. It always seemed a fine and simple game, with winner gaining bragging rights of calling their hard nut a "oner" "two-er" etc as victories accumulate.
It’s an interesting tree and beautiful and I appreciate the anecdotes! I think, however, that we should avoid planting horse chestnuts and might even show some enthusiasm for removing them. Horse chestnut, being a “King County Weed of Concern, is in a category described as follows: “These species often impact and degrade native plant and animal habitat. Control is recommended where possible and new plantings are discouraged.” To wit, 96% of the beautiful and interesting terrestrial birds of North America feed only insects to their young and our local insects have co-evolved with and only lay their eggs on native plants. For every piece of “real estate” that we cover with a nonnative plant, we are emptying some of the shelves in the pantry of the insects needed for nestlings. We can feed adults seeds and berries to our, and their, hearts content, but the nestlings will not be fed without the native plants and the insects. The native trees are, of course, the biggest sources of insects. Oaks are keystone species, supporting hundreds of insect species and producing those all important larvae/caterpillars, a nestling’s version of a baby bottle. And it takes many thousands from hatch to near adult size in two weeks! The oak’s got to be native though, and around here that would only, and just barely, be a Garry oak. I recommend entomologist Doug Tallamy’s books Nature’s Best Hope and The Nature of Oaks to learn more. By the way, there are horse chestnuts popping up in natural areas near my home, so they are spreading.