Common Name: bottlebrush buckeye
Type: Deciduous shrub
Family: Sapindaceae
Native Range: Southeastern United States
Zone: 4 to 8
Height: 15.00 to 20.00 feet
Spread: 15.00 to 20.00 feet
Bloom Time: July
Bloom Description: White
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Flowering Tree, Naturalize, Rain Garden
Leaf: Good Fall
Attracts: Butterflies
Tolerate: Rabbit, Deer, Erosion, Wet Soil
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in part shade to full shade.
Prefers rich, moist loams. Intolerant of dry soils, particularly in the early years before its root system becomes well established. Pruning is usually unnecessary. Plants will spread by suckering, but are generally not considered to be invasive.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Aesculus parviflora, commonly called bottlebrush buckeye, is native to rich woodland areas in Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida. It is noted for being one of the best summer-flowering shrubs for shade areas. It is a dense, deciduous, mounded, suckering, multi-stemmed shrub which typically grows 6-12’ tall clad with large, palmate, green leaves (each with 5-7 leaflets). Erect and showy cylindrical panicles (to 12” long) of tubular white flowers with conspicuous red anthers and pinkish filaments appear in a spectacular mid-summer bloom. Flowers give way to glossy inedible, pear-shaped nuts (buckeyes) encased in husks, however these nuts are infrequently produced in cultivation in the northern parts of this shrub’s growing range (including St. Louis). Foliage turns yellow in autumn.
Var. serotina is native to Alabama. It differs from species plants by maturing to a larger size (eventually to 20' tall), producing larger inflorescences (to 30" long) and blooming about 3 weeks later in the year (mid/late July in the St. Louis area).
Genus name is the Latin name for a kind of oak bearing edible acorns but applied by Linnaeus to this genus.
Specific epithet means small flowers.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Excellent lawn specimen. Group or mass in shrub borders or woodland areas.