Distribution
Common horse chestnut is a familiar attribute of many cities, decorating park alleys, squares, boulevards, household plots, streets and gardens. Fifteen representatives of the horse chestnut genus can be found in North America, China, Europe and Japan. In Kyiv, horse chestnuts are trees that appeared in the first half of the 19th century. They have become a "visiting card" of the Ukrainian capital, and the image of a leaf and an inflorescence has become a natural symbol of the city.
The deciduous tree has also taken root in the European part of Russia, where the climate differs significantly from the mild climatic conditions of Southern Europe - the birthplace of the plant. On the Balkan Peninsula, where horse chestnuts are still found in the wild, trees are called relict, since they have been inhabitants of the local mountain forests since ancient times. Today, chestnuts, wherever there are appropriate conditions for their growth, are the favorites of park design.
Description
Chestnut tree (photo presented inarticle) decorative.
It is always attractive, especially in the warm season, when its wide crown is covered with a bizarre mosaic of large leaves, consisting of five to seven fan-shaped leaflets. In May, at the time of abundant flowering, chestnuts are trees that fascinate with the incredible beauty of white bell-shaped flowers with a pink tint. Pyramid-shaped inflorescences (erect brushes) resemble candles that have flared up among dark green foliage. Later, large fruits ripen on the branches - brown seeds with a white scar at the base, hidden in three-winged boxes with thorns. In August and September, the horse chestnut tree surprises again. The boxes open, and the shiny, as if polished, seeds, commonly called simply chestnuts or horse chestnuts, fall to the ground. There is an opinion that the name "horse" was given to the chestnut for the color of the peel of the fruit, resembling the skin of a bay horse.
Application
The fruits of the horse chestnut, unlike the nuts of the sowing chestnut, are inedible, but they are a valuable raw material for the production of medicines.
Flowers and bark are also used in pharmaceuticals. Medicines from this plant - tablets, ointments, drops, capsules, suppositories - are used to treat vascular diseases common in our time. Traditional medicine uses chestnut-based remedies to treat leg veins and hemorrhoids. Healers recommend using an alcohol tincture of horse chestnut flowers externally to removearthritic and rheumatic pains. Horse chestnut wood has no commercial value, but is valuable to wood carvers. The plant is a honey plant. Horse chestnuts are trees with a domed crown, reaching great heights, interesting in all seasons. That is why they are of great value for greening cities. In addition, according to ecologists, trees of this species perfectly clean the air in cities from exhaust gases. According to scientists, one tree can clean up to 20,000 cubic meters of polluted air.
