Buckeyes?????

From the seeds can anybody tell me the difference between a Red Buckeye and a White Buckeye tree. Least that's what I think I got ??? I asked 5 different people today and nobod could tell me which was which.

Too, please the other day I gathered some Buckeyes up and had em sitting on my table. They are a lighter brown shade and the other set is a darker brown shade.

The lighter brown shade is starting to shrivel. Are they supposed to do that or do I need to put these guys in the fridge before I get a change to plant em which wont be til Friday?

Not sure if I can tell the difference but the buckeyes should be in a cool spot. The fridge is cool but it also dries, like an A/C unit. Buckeyes are fairly susceptible to drying out and losing all of the lipids inside so the sooner they get in the ground or in a moist media like sphagnum, the better.

MM is right on with great advice. It doesn't take long for Aesculus seed to lose its germinative value. Shriveling is bad. Put them in anything moist, even a wet towel in the bag and then in the fridge, and then get them planted ASAP. The seed wants to throw down a root radicle this fall, and then put up it's initial top growth next spring.

As far as telling them apart...not sight unseen. Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) around here are always smaller in dimension under similar conditions than the other buckeyes. I'm not sure what you are calling white buckeye; that's not a common name that I've heard used (but I'm a Yankee up here in KY).

On average:

•Aesculus pavia, red buckeye, is redder/oranger brown and smaller than Aesculus glabra, Ohio buckeye, which is a rather dark shiny brown

•Aesculus pavia is about the same color but smaller than Aesculus parviflora, bottlebrush buckeye which is the shrubbier species with the narrow upright white summer flower spikes

•Aesculus pavia is similar in color but smaller than Aesculus flava, yellow buckeye, which is a very large tree species

Those are the four most common native buckeyes that I get to see regularly in native as well as ornamental landscapes. Unfortunately, it is about past buckeye collection season here, but I'll take a look around the parks today and see if there aren't a few the squirrels haven't absconded with yet that I could pick up for comparison. This is good info that needs to show up in PlantFiles.

If you were able to post a photo of what you have (side by side groups of the seed would be helpful), as well as maybe a picture of the parent trees, I bet this forum will be able to ID what you've got.

Oh boy or boy. I snatched my seeds up and have them in paper towel in fridge right now til friday. I appreciate the information. So glad I asked before I had nothing but a bunch of dried up brown things sitting around. I will try and see if I can get a pic tommorrow, maybe I can borrow one of the professors cameras. I have a camera but so computer illiterate I can't get the program to down down load on this antique of a computer. grrrr

The only Buckeye that I had ever heard of was the one from Ohio, and remember having one as kid that it was supposed to be a good luck charm. But that was many years ago ( too many) and I don't remember exactly what it looked like.

I don't know if there really is a white Buckeye or not. I just know that everybody I asked called it that, but nobody could remember the scientific name.

Til I can get a pic maybe this might help. The leaves have what I call very tiny serrations on the margins, but the serrations dont come all the way to the base of the leaf. They stop about a half inch before the base. The leaf is pointed at both ends and widest at the middle. The mid-vein of the leaf is what I would call a bit repressed. The bud to me is like a yellow/greenish color with orange/red outline and the bark is a grey/white smooth. The grey/white I call splotched all around the bark.

There either two or three seeds in each pod. The outside of the pod is what I would a light tan with a greenish/yellow tinge with tons of tiny darker bumps sticking up all over it. I know, the best color to describe the seed is that of a rich carmel kinda of color.

Does that sound familiar at all?

If I can get him to take a pic for me, I will do the seeds and the pod shells.

starlight,
I grew up just up the road from you, in the Opelika area. Never saw any native buckeyes in that area other than A.pavia. I'm not saying there weren't others, and certainly, if these were planted in someone's landscape, they could be some other species, but if you collected 'em from a natural setting, my money would be riding on red buckeye.