Mystery Plant: Red buckeye, Aesculus pavia

I hereby decree that spring has arrived, along with its fragrant wisterias, brilliant jessamine, and charming crimson clover. Finally! And to celebrate, let me offer one of the most attractive of the spring-blooming Southeastern species ...and a woody species at that. Red flowers are not very common in our Southern tree species, and certainly not tubular red flowers. This species’ flowers fit both attributes. A flash of bright red in the shady woods is always a treat, especially now.

This species is most often a small, slender tree, or perhaps just as commonly, a shrub. Its bark is pale brown and smooth. All winter long it has been leafless, but now its foliage is coming back, the leaves quickly unfolding and spreading from their large, knobby buds. The leaves are very attractive and a bit unusual for the tree species in this area. There are two long-stalked leaves at each node, and thus the leaf arrangement is opposite ...not too many different types of trees around here have opposite leaves. Furthermore, each leaf blade is palmately divided into distinct leaflets, each one pointed on the tip and toothy along the margins.