SAPINDACEAE - - Soapberry Family

Aesculus glabra Willdenow var. glabra — Ohio Buckeye

Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is a medium-sized tree, normally 30-50 feet tall, rarely to 82 feet, with a broad, open, rounded crown; trunk straight, to 32 inches in diameter. The National Champ has a circumference of 182.4 inches, is 75 feet tall, with a crown spread of 71 feet. Like Yellow Buckeye, Ohio Buckeye has leaves that are opposite, deciduous, with 5 palmately arranged leaflets. A. glabra, in this area, is a much smaller tree than A. flava, and very rare in Georgia. Although the range map below doesn't show Ohio Buckeye in Georgia it is found here, with the primary population at Pigeon Mountain west of LaFayette (Walker Co.), and disjunct populations in Gwinnett Co. and Paulding Co.?

Separating Characteristics

The best way to separate A. glabra from the other species of Buckeyes is the flowers, the petals are almost equal in length; the stamens are well exserted beyond the petals, and about twice as long as the petals. If you have fruit, the husks are spiny with blunt spines, where all other species treated here (except the cultivated, non-native Horsechestnut) have smooth husks. The twigs are more slender and darker than Yellow Buckeye, twigs of recent growth usually a gray to pale purplish color, where Yellow Buckeye's twigs are usually light tan. The winter bud scales are conspicuously keeled (have a ridge down the center). And, finally, the twigs, bark, flowers, and leaves all produce an offensive odor when crushed, hence one of it's common names "fetid buckeye."

Habitat

Mesic forests over limestone. Largely midwestern, but ranges east to sw. PA, e. TN, and nw. GA; it is also sometimes introduced eastward of that distribution. It occurs in TN counties adjacent to both VA and NC. Var. arguta occurs west of the Mississippi River from IA and NE south to e. and c. TX; it differs in having 7-11 leaflets, each 1-3 (-5) cm wide (vs. 5-7 leaflets, each (2-) 3-6 (-8) cm wide).

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

Native Range

West of the Appalachians, from western Pennsylvania, through Ohio, southern Michigan and on to Iowa, south to the extreme southeast corner of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, eastward to Arkansas, Missouri and dipping southward through Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama and Georgia, with disjunct populations scattered in Alabama, eastern Mississippi and also Georgia.

The native range of Aesculus glabra (Ohio Buckeye)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

The Georgia range of Aesculus glabra (Ohio Buckeye)

Zomlefer, W.B., J.R. Carter, & D.E. Giannasi. 2014 (and ongoing). The Atlas of Georgia Plants. University of Georgia Herbarium (Athens, Georgia) and Valdosta State University Herbarium (Valdosta, Georgia). Available at: http://www.georgiaherbaria.org/.