Aesculus pavia. RED BUCKEYE. Southern & Eastern United States
HIPPOCASTANACEAE (Horse chestnut family)
Known as one parent of the popular red horse chestnut, red buckeye itself is uncommon. The only ones noted on campus are small trees: one is a few yards northwest of the northwest corner of Littlefield Center (in the direction of Albers Wall); the other is crowded and shaded between the Guest Suites near the Elliot Program Center, Governor's Corner. In March and April the spikes of its distinguishing red tubular flowers are conspicuous. Trees of the pine family are wind-pollinated, as of old, but most flowering trees now depend on insects. Some still depend on wind, while others depend on mammals and birds. Red buckeye is believed to be pollinated by hummingbirds.
Name derivation, genus | species: Aesculus: the Latin name for a kind of oak bearing edible acorns but applied by Linnaeus to this genus | after Petrus Pavius, Dutch botanist, d. 1616, from California Plant NamesRelated material: