Geograph - photograph every grid square

This lovely specimen was standing tall and proud by the path on Greenway Bank Country Park.

The Horse Chestnut (Aesculus Hippocastanum) was introduced to Britain from the Balkans during the 17th century as an ornamental tree, it grows so successfully throughout this country that it is now considered naturalised. It can reach a height of 35 metres (115 feet) and can spread almost as wide when given the space to do so. It is one of the first trees to come into leaf in the spring when it also produces clusters, known as ‘candles’ because of the shape, of either pink or white flowers which are normally pollinated by early flying Bumblebees. The leaves are palmate (hand shaped) and made of between five and seven leaflets. The seeds are enclosed in a prickly shell about the same size as a marble which slowly grows to the size of a golf ball. In September the casing splits revealing a shiny brown nut-like seed that is known as a conker. Although the conkers are used as a popular game they are also eaten by deer and cattle and in the past were sometimes ground up as meal for fattening sheep. When the Horse Chestnut leaves fall in autumn they leave behind a horseshoe-shaped scar which gives rise to its name. Recently, pests and diseases have arrived from mainland Europe that are causing severe dieback in Horse Chestnuts.