Aesculus turbinata


Aesculus turbinata, common name Japanese horse-chestnut, is native to Japan but cultivated elsewhere. It is a tree up to 30 m tall. Flowers are white to pale yellowish with red spots. Capsules are dark brown, obovoid to pyriform. The seeds were traditionally eaten, after leaching, by the Jōmon people of Japan over about four millennia, until 300 AD.

Etymology

Aesculus was named by Linnaeus, and the name is derived from the Roman name, aesculus, of the durmast oak.
Turbinata means ‘conical’, ‘turbinate’, or ‘top-shaped’.