The Beautiful Horse Chestnut (+ 2 inset images)

(+ 2 inset images)

The Palmerton Arboretum has a wide variety of trees to appreciate, and I loved the many-lobed leaves of the Horse Chestnut trees I found growing there.These trees are also covered with countless prickle-covered nut fruits which look like something from another planet!

Horse Chestnut Trees are native to southeast Europe and are commonly cultivated in parks around the world. They have beautiful pink flowers which turn into horse chestnuts. They get their name from the similarity to the true chestnut combined with the false information that the nuts cured horses of chest ailments. In fact, these nuts are poisonous to horses!

Horse Chestnuts are also known as conkers, which is the name of a children's game played by two people. After threading a pair of strings through two nuts, each takes turns trying to break the other's conker. Here is a fun video to show you what Conkers is all about! :) The Game of Conkers.

If you would like to know more about these trees, Wiki has a very nice page here: Wiki: Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)