Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra)

Categories: Floodplain Site | Medium-Sized Tree | Shaded Site | Understory Tree | GreatPlants for the Great Plains

Ohio Buckeye is a distinctive native tree known for its bold, palmately compound leaves, showy spring flowers, and colorful fall foliage. This medium-sized tree typically grows 20–40 feet tall and wide with a rounded canopy, making it an attractive ornamental specimen. It is an excellent choice for woodland edges, shaded landscapes, and naturalized plantings.

In spring, Ohio Buckeye produces upright panicles of greenish-yellow flowers that attract pollinators and add subtle seasonal interest. By mid- to late summer, Ohio Buckeye produces distinctive fruits that contain a shiny brown seed, or “buckeye,” enclosed within a golden-brown husk with a lightly spiny texture. The fruits may appear singly or in clusters and become increasingly noticeable as the season progresses.

It’s large, distinctive leaves provide dense summer shade and seasonal texture before turning warm shades of yellow, orange, and red in fall.

NATIVE RANGE

Map courtesy of the USDA-NRCS Plant Database.