Plant: Dwarf Red - Buckeye
Buckeye · Aesculus pavia
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A clumping, rounded native buckeye that grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide with coarse texture and opposite palmately compound leaves whose glossy green leaflets turn red in fall. Panicles 6 to 10 inches long of red to orange red tubular flowers open in early spring and feed hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators, followed by smooth light tan leathery capsules holding one to three large shiny brown seeds that squirrels eat. It wants partial shade and moist, well drained soil high in organic matter, tolerates wet ground, and belongs at a woodland edge, beside a pond or in a rain garden.
- Part Shade
- Grows to 25 ft tall and 20 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 4a-8b
- Deciduous foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
A clumping, rounded native buckeye that grows 15 to 25 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide with coarse texture and opposite palmately compound leaves whose glossy green leaflets turn red in fall. Panicles 6 to 10 inches long of red to orange red tubular flowers open in early spring and feed hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators, followed by smooth light tan leathery capsules holding one to three large shiny brown seeds that squirrels eat. It wants partial shade and moist, well drained soil high in organic matter, tolerates wet ground, and belongs at a woodland edge, beside a pond or in a rain garden.
- Flowers
- Panicles 6 to 10 inches long of red to orange red tubular flowers in spring.
- Foliage
- Opposite palmately compound leaves with glossy green elliptical to obovate serrate leaflets 3 to 6 inches long, turning red in fall.
- Fruit
- A 1 to 3 inch wide smooth light tan leathery capsule holding 1 to 3 large shiny brown seeds.
- Bark & stems
- Splotchy gray brown bark, initially smooth, developing scaly patches with age; stout olive brown stems with raised brown lenticels.
- Light
- Dappled/Filtered Light
- Native range
- USA, NC
