Distribution. Rich woods; Shell Bluff on the Savannah River, Burke County, Georgia; near Birmingham, Jefferson County, and Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; near Campbell, Dunklin County, Missouri; Comal Springs, New Braunfels County, and Sutherland Springs, Wilson County, Texas; rare and local, and found as a tree only near Birmingham, Alabama; more abundant is the var. mollis Sarg. (Aesculus austrina Small) with bright red flowers; a tree up to 25° or 30° high, or more often a large or small shrub; valley of the lower Cape Fear River (near Wilmington, New Hanover County), North Carolina, southward near the coast to the neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, through Georgia to the neighborhood of Rome, Floyd County, and southward to western Florida; in Alabama widely distributed from Jefferson County southward; widely distributed in Mississippi except in the neighborhood of the Gulf coast, to West Feliciana Parish, eastern Louisiana; more common and generally distributed in western Louisiana, and through eastern Texas to the valley of the San Antonio River (neighborhood of San Antonio, Bexar County) and to that of the upper Guadalupe River (near Boerne, Kendall County), ranging northward through Arkansas to southern Missouri and western Tennessee.
On the Edwards Plateau of western Texas Aesculus discolor is represented by the var. flavescens Sarg., with yellow flowers, appearing a few days earlier than those of the var. mollis; a shrub 9′—12′ high, or often much smaller; interesting as the only form of Eupaviæ with yellow flowers; San Marcos, Hays County, common on the slopes above Comal Springs, near New Braunfels, Comal County, near Boerne, Kendall County (with the var. mollis), Kerrville, Kerr County, and Cancan, Uvalde County.
6. [Aesculus californica] Nutt. Buckeye.
Leaves with slender grooved petioles 3′—4′ long, and 4—7 usually 5 oblong-lanceolate acuminate leaflets narrowed and acuminate or rounded at base, sharply serrate, 4′—6′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, dark green above, paler below, slightly pubescent when they first appear, becoming glabrous or nearly so, on petiolules ½′—1′ long; falling early, often by midsummer. Flowers white or pale rose color, 1′—1¼′ long, appearing from May to July when the leaves are fully grown, on short pedicels mostly unilateral on the long branches of the densely flowered long-stemmed pubescent cluster 3′—9′ in length; calyx 2-lobed, slightly toothed, much shorter than the narrow oblong petals; stamens 5—7, with long erect exserted slender filaments and bright orange-colored anthers; ovary densely pubescent. Fruit obovoid, often somewhat gibbous on the outer side, with thin smooth pale brown valves, usually 1-seeded, 2′—3′ long, on a slender stalk ¼′—½′ in length; seeds pale orange-brown, 1½′—2′ broad.
A tree, rarely 20°—30° high, with a short trunk occasionally 4°—5° in diameter, often much enlarged at base, stout wide-spreading branches, forming a round-topped head, and branchlets glabrous and pale reddish brown when they first appear, becoming darker in their second season; more often a shrub, with spreading stems 10°—15° high forming broad dense thickets. Winter-buds acute, covered with narrow dark brown scales rounded on the back and thickly coated with resin. Bark of the trunk about ¼′ thick, smooth, and light gray or nearly white. Wood soft, light, very close-grained, white or faintly tinged with yellow, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. California, borders of streams, valley of the south fork of the Salmon River, Siskiyou County, south along the coast ranges to San Luis Obispo County and on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, usually at altitudes between 2000° and 2500°, occasionally to 5000°, to the northern slopes of Tejon Pass, Kern County, and to Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the Pacific states, and in western and southern Europe.
XXXVII. SAPINDACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate pinnate petiolate persistent or deciduous leaves, without stipules. Flowers regular or irregular, polygamo-diœcious, polygamo-monœcious or polygamous; calyx of 4 or 5 sepals or lobes imbricated in the bud; petals 4 or 5 imbricated in the bud; disk annular, fleshy, 5-lobed, or unilateral and oblique; stamens usually 7—10, inserted on the disk; filaments free; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2—4 or 3-celled; styles terminal; stigmas capitate or lobed; ovule solitary or 2 in each cell, anatropous or amphitropous. Fruit a drupe or capsule. Seed usually solitary, without albumen; seed-coat bony, coriaceous or crustaceous.