Aesculus Pavia is the scientific name for the Red Buckeye . It is a flowering plant of the deciduous variety. This shrub or you can call it a small tree, grows mainly in eastern and southern regions of United States. In the east it grows in the region extending from Virginia all the way to Illinois, and in south it grows from Florida to Texas. It is also called the wooly buckeye, scarlet buckeye and Firecracker plant because of the shape of it flowers resembling a string of crackers.
The Red Buckeye which is almost a small tree, grows to a height ranging from 5 to 8 meters, and will spread to about 1.5 to 2 meters. Usually this shrub has a lot of multiple stems and its leaves are serrated. The leaves which are a dark shade of green, are around 10 to 15 centimetres in length and grow as a bunch of 5 to 7 leaflets, having a narrow elliptical shape. The Red Buckeye is a hardy shrub having a grayish brown bark.
Flowers and Fruits
Red Buckeye has hermaphrodite flowers, which are tubular in shape and dark red in color. There is also a yellow flower variety, which grows wild in higher altitudes in Texas. The hybrids which are cultivated tend to have flowers with intermediate colors. The flowers grow in clusters , which are about 10 to 17 centimetres in length, and bees and hummingbirds are generally attracted to them. This shrub is really beautiful when it is in full bloom in the spring season. Fruits of this small tree are poisonous, as they cannot be digested easily. Some people extract the oils of the fruits for making soaps, although it is not much viable commercially.
These shrubs give lively color under trees like pines or oaks , and can be used as a border around a bunch of trees or around the boundary of a yard. Red Buckeye grows very fast and also flowers start to bloom, quite soon after planting.
Red Buckeye can be grown in areas which have a soil mix which is well drained. It needs proper sunlight but will also grow well in a partial shade. The soil mix can be made up of 40% loam, 40% peat moss and 20% perlite or sand. A fertiliser which has a slow release can be added to this mix, in a proportion of one cup to 0.01 cu yard of mix. The propagation of this plant is from seed, and the seeds are not known to have a period of dormancy, but to get a good crop, cold stratification for a minimum of 30 days is recommended. These plants need a good amount of water, but should dry before the next watering. If they are being grown in pots, they should be kept in a room having a temperature of around 9 degrees Celsius. The Red Buckeye is not much susceptible to mildew, but in hot and dry weather will have leaf scorch.
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