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| Commercial timbers |
Nomenclature etc. SAPINDACEAE (HIPPOCASTANACEAE). Important species: Aesculus hippocastanum L. (Europe); A. glabra Willd., A. octandra Marsh. (North America); A. indica Colebr., A. turbinata Bl. (temperate Asia). Trade and local names: A. hippocastanum: horse chestnut (GB); maronnier d'Inde (FR); wilde kastanje (NL); castaño de Indias, falso castaño (ES); hestekastanje (NL). A. octandra: sweet buckeye, yellow buckeye (US); A. glabra: Ohio buckeye (US). A. turbinata: chiire dochi, tochi, tochi-nochi (JP). Not protected under CITES regulations.
Tree. Geographic distribution: Europe, excl. Mediterranean, Mediterranean incl. N. Africa and Middle East, temperate Asia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (Aesculus hippocastanum, A. indica, A. turbinata), North America to Mexico and Central America (A. glabra, A. octandra).
General. Growth ring boundaries distinct. Heartwood basically yellow to white or grey. Sapwood colour similar to heartwood colour. Density 0.4–0.55 g/cm³.
Vessels. Wood diffuse porous. Vessels in multiples, commonly in short (2–3 vessels) radial rows or in radial rows of 4 or more. Average tangential vessel diameter 40–60(–80) µm. Average number of vessels/mm² 100–150. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits alternate, average diameter (vertical) 4–6 µm. Vessel-ray pits with distinct borders, similar to intervessel pits, restricted to marginal rows. Helical thickenings present, in narrow and wide vessel elements, throughout the body of vessel elements. Tyloses present, thinwalled.
Tracheids and fibres. Fibres very thin-walled, or of medium wall thickness. Fibre pits mainly restricted to radial walls, simple to minutely bordered.
Axial parenchyma. Axial parenchyma banded. Bands marginal (or seemingly marginal). Bands fine. Apotracheal axial parenchyma diffuse-in-aggregates. Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty.
Rays. Rays 8–12 per tangential mm, exclusively uniseriate. Height of large rays up to 500 µm. Rays composed of a single cell type (homocellular); homocellular ray cells procumbent.
Storied structures. Storied structure present (A. turbinata) or absent (all other species), all rays storied. Arrangement of tiers regular, or irregular. Number of ray tiers per axial millimetre 2–3.
Mineral inclusions. Crystals not observed. Silica not observed.
Illustrations. • Transverse section. • Tangential section - rays not storied. helical thickenings in vessels. Aesculus hippocastanus: rays not storied. • Tangential section - rays storied. Aesculus turbinata: rays irregularly storied. • Radial section. Aesculus hippocastanus. ray-vessel pits restricted to marginal rows.
The interactive key allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, and geographical distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 9th April 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
