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| **CALIFORNIA BUCKEYE**                                                |
|                                                                       |
| ***Aesculus californica* (Spach) Nutt.**                              |
|                                                                       |
| plant symbol = AECA                                                   |
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# Contributed By: USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="2.798611111111111in"
height="1.9013888888888888in"}

## Alternate Names

## Horse chesnut; Indian names: de-sa\' ka-la\' (Pomo); far\'-sokt (Nomlaki); sympt\'-ol (Yuki); ah\'-te (Coast Miwok)

## Uses

This tree had multiple cultural uses among California Indian tribes.
Many indigenous groups utilized buckeye seeds for food, often when other
plant food sources were scarce. These tribes included the Costanoan,
Salinan, Kitanemuk, Serrano, Wappo, Sierra Miwok, Coast Miwok, Chumash,
Kawaiisu, Northern Maidu among others. The Pomo ate the seeds even when
other important food plants were plentiful. The seeds are poisonous to
humans in the raw state. Thus, the nuts were cracked open with a rock,
the shells removed, the seeds pounded into flour, and their toxic
saponins removed in a lengthy leaching process. The meal was
subsequently cooked and eaten. There are many different methods for
processing and cooking buckeye seeds for food, depending upon the tribe.
The seeds have medicinal properties and were cut into pieces, mixed with
water, and made into suppositories for hemorrhoids by the Costanoan and
Kawaiisu. The Pomo cut bark

from the base of the tree and made a poultice, which was laid on a
snakebite. Young buckeye shoots were sometimes used as spindles or
twirling sticks in fire-making kits of the Sierra Miwok, Northern Maidu,
Wappo, Yahi and other tribes. Many tribes mashed buckeye nuts and poured
the contents into quiet pools to stupefy or kill fish.

Do not plant buckeyes near apiaries as the flowers are poisonous to
honey bees. No wildlife eat buckeye seeds except squirrels, such as the
California ground squirrel (*Citellus beecheyi*).

## Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status (e.g. threatened or endangered
species, state noxious status, and wetland indicator values).

**Description**

*General*: Buckeye Family (Hippocastanaceae). This native, deciduous
shrub or tree reaches 12 m in height with a broad, rounded crown. The
palmately compound leaves occur in leaflets of 5 to 7 and each leaflet
is oblong-lanceolate and finely serrate. The inflorescence has many
showy flowers in a panicle-like arrangement and it is erect, 1-2 dm. in
length. Each individual flower has 4-5 petals and these are white to
pale rose with 5-7 exserted stamens. The fruit is pear-shaped and
smooth. The large, shiny light-brown seeds are 2-5 cm.

# **Distribution**

For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site.

**Establishment**

*Adaptation*: The California buckeye is one of the first shrubs to leaf
out in spring and one of the earliest to shed its leaves in mid-summer.
It is found on dry slopes, canyons and the borders of streams in many
plant communities below 1700 m. in northwestern and central western
California, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada foothills, Tehachapi Mountains,
Great Central Valley, and southwestern Mohave Desert.

*General*: Harvest the large seeds from the tree or shrub about
November. Plant them in the ground immediately\--half buried in an area
of full sun or light shade. There is a light spot on the seed, which is
the growing point when being formed. The radicle will sprout from this
area so make sure that this spot is covered with soil. Plant the seeds
in a well-drained soil. Water the soil immediately after planting, and
if there is not enough rain during the rainy season, supplement it with
hand watering. The plants will also need some summer watering the first
year so a good rule to follow is to keep the soil damp. The tree is a
fast grower and can achieve as much as ten inches in height in one year.
After buckeye seeds have been in the ground one full year, they should
become established, and will not need continual care.

## Management 

When the shrub is mature, dead and dying branches can be lightly pruned
if necessary.

**Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)**

Please check the Vendor Database, expected to be on-line through the
PLANTS Web site in 2001 by clicking on Plant Materials. These plant
materials are readily available from commercial sources.

**References**

Beard, Y.S. 1979. *The Wappo: A report*. Malki Museum Press, Morongo
Indian Reservation, Banning, California.

Collier, M.E.T. & S.B. Thalman (editors) 1991. *Interviews with Tom
Smith and Maria Copa: Isabel Kelly\'s ethnographic notes on the Coast
Miwok Indians of Marin and southern Sonoma Counties, California*. Miwok
Archeological Preserve of Marin Occasional Papers Number 6.

Dixon, R.B. 1905. *The Huntington California expedition: the Northern
Maidu*. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
17(3):119-346.

Goodrich, J., C. Lawson, & V.P. Lawson. 1980. *Kashaya Pomo plants*.
American Indian Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles,
California.

Harrington, J.P. 1942. *Culture element distributions: XIX central
California coast*. Anthropological Records 7(1): 1-45.

Martin, A.C., H.S. Zim, & A.L. Nelson. 1951. *American wildlife and
plants: A guide to wildlife food habits*. Dover Publications, Inc., New
York, New York.

Stone, W.J. 1993. Hippocastanaceae. Page 682 IN: *The Jepson manual:
Higher plants of California*. J.C. Hickman (ed.). University of
California Press, Berkeley, California.

USDA, NRCS 2000. *The PLANTS database*. \<http://plants.usda.gov\>.
001206. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Zigmond, M.L. 1981. *Kawaiisu ethnobotany*. University of Utah Press,
Salt Lake City, Utah.

## Prepared By and Species Coordinators

# Kat Anderson

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

Dept. of Environmental Horticulture, University of California, Davis,
California

# Wayne Roderick

Former Director of the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley,
California

Edited 17jan01 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> and Plant
Materials Program Web sites
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>.

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