A very rare tree with tall white flowers with a yellow center which turns red.
These handsome trees usually leaf out in April, followed by flowers from late April to June. Fruits are formed from September to October.
Tall trees to 25 m, with a single trunk to 2.5 m in diam. (at breast height) and a broadly spreading, rounded crown of 10 m or so across. Branchlets sometimes glabrous, but often densely hairy and almost like velvet when young.
Narrowly oblong leaves emerge bronze-red, turning green . Leaves opposite, palmately divided, with five, seven, sometimes nine leaflets, the middle leaflet larger than the others, often tinged copper when first emerging, turning dark green in summer.
Flowers sweetly fragrant. Calyx 3–7 mm long, split on one side, abaxially puberulent or glabrous, green but tinged pink at the tip. Petals four, white, subequal, the upper two narrower with large yellow blotches, the lower two broad and slightly clawed, oblong-obovate to oblong-oblanceolate
Width: 10m (33ft)
Height: 15m (50ft)
Hardiness: Winter hardy to USDA Zone: 4 to 8
Medicinal use of :
The seed is antirheumatic and emetic. The sweet tasting seed is said to be used in the treatment of contracted limbs that are due to palsy or rheumatism. It is also used in the treatment of stomach aches.
Edible parts of :
Seed - cooked. It can be dried and ground into a powder and used as a gruel. The seed is quite large, it can be 3cm in diameter, and is easily harvested. Unfortunately it is also rich in saponins, these must be removed before it can be used as a food and this process also removes many of the minerals and vitamins, leaving behind mainly starch. The seed needs to be leached of toxins before it becomes safe to eat - the Indians would do this by slow-roasting the nuts (which would have rendered the saponins harmless) and then cutting them into thin slices, putting them into a cloth bag and rinsing them in a stream for 2 - 5 days.
Other uses of :
Saponins in the seed are used as a soap substitute. The saponins can be easily obtained by chopping the seed into small pieces and infusing them in hot water. This water can then be used for washing the body, clothes etc. Its main drawback is a lingering odor of horse chestnuts.