Save The Chestnut!



	The future of Britain’s horse-chestnut trees could be under threat because of several diseases that have infected the species over the past 10 years. Concurrently, the familiar sight of people rummaging at the base of these trees to find the best conkers and engage in the centuries-long tradition of conker fights is also dwindling. Horse chestnuts are an iconic British sight, found in hundreds of churchyards, parks, schools and gardens. Every great city in Europe has an avenue or boulevard dedicated to the magnificent leaves and striking Roman candle flowers of the great tree. Aesculus hippocastanum was named by Linnaeus after the Roman name for an edible acorn. The use of the term horse refers to their strength or inedibility, not to their fitness as fodder for horses, except in folklore. A native of Albania, the tree was widely distributed by the Romans. Today, the horse chestnut is under attack. The first enemy is bleeding canker, a disease that appears as black tarry deposits on the trunk and branches that oozes out of the stem. The second is the leaf miner, which feeds within the leaves causing distinct translucent tunnels on the upper leaf surface. These coalesce by late July into brown dead patches on the leaves, thus creating a ‘brown tree blob’ appearance on the landscape horizon.

The future of Britain’s horse-chestnut trees could be under threat because of several diseases that have infected the species over the past 10 years. Concurrently, the familiar sight of people rummaging at the base of these trees to find the best conkers and engage in the centuries-long tradition of conker fights is also dwindling.

Horse chestnuts are an iconic British sight, found in hundreds of churchyards, parks, schools and gardens. Every great city in Europe has an avenue or boulevard dedicated to the magnificent leaves and striking Roman candle flowers of the great tree. Aesculus hippocastanum was named by Linnaeus after the Roman name for an edible acorn. The use of the term horse refers to their strength or inedibility, not to their fitness as fodder for horses, except in folklore. A native of Albania, the tree was widely distributed by the Romans.

Today, the horse chestnut is under attack. The first enemy is bleeding canker, a disease that appears as black tarry deposits on the trunk and branches that oozes out of the stem. The second is the leaf miner, which feeds within the leaves causing distinct translucent tunnels on the upper leaf surface. These coalesce by late July into brown dead patches on the leaves, thus creating a ‘brown tree blob’ appearance on the landscape horizon.

To save your Horse Chestnut... Call 0845 600 9000

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