Aesculus pavia Humilis

The Aesculus pavia 'Humilis' is a shrubby form of a large American chestnut tree called Red Buckeye. It offers a beautiful bright red spring flowering, but its upright inflorescences are shorter than those of the species. This small deciduous tree with a dense and more or less prostrate crown is adorned with beautiful palmate foliage, glossy, dark green. Despite its ornamental value, it is not widely planted in our gardens, and its moderate growth is also suitable for small plots. Plant it in full sun or partial shade, where you can admire it from the house, in a cool and rather fertile soil.

The Aesculus pavia 'Humilis' was introduced around 1826 in the U.S.A. The species type Aesculus pavia is a large tree native to the central and southern United States. The cultivar 'Humilis' sometimes forms multiple stems from its stump, and they can be horizontal. Slow-growing, this large, rounded and bushy shrub reaches between 4 m and 4.50 m in all directions. It proves to be hardy and resistant to diseases that have been attacking our large chestnut trees in recent years. Its branches produce smooth, non-sticky buds. Its deciduous leaves are divided into 5 elliptical and oblong leaflets, 10 to 15 cm long, with finely toothed edges, of a glossy dark green. They turn yellow in autumn. The first upright cluster-shaped inflorescences, 10 to 12 cm long, bloom depending on the climate, from the end of May to the middle of June. The small tubular flowers are bright red. The flowering, greatly appreciated by pollinating insects, is followed by the formation of ovoid fruits without spines, containing a single large smooth brown seed. They ripen in September-October. These are toxic fruits if ingested.

The Aesculus pavia 'Humilis' is used as a specimen plant, but also in a shrub bed or in a large mixed hedge. It forms a beautiful combination in rather acidic soil with a large blue-flowered hydrangea like 'Blue Wave', a large rhododendron, and in ordinary soil with the Hydrangea quercifolia, the Neillia affinis, and the Cotinus Royal Purple, for example.