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Aesculus pavia
Also called Red Horse Chestnut, Firecracker Plant, Scarlet Buckeye, Red Horsechestnut
Red buckeye is a small deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub native to the southeastern United States, grown for its dark red spring flower clusters. It is easy to grow in a sunny to part-shade spot with well-drained soil and is valued by hummingbirds and bees.
Aesculus pavia, known as red buckeye or firecracker plant (formerly Pavia rubra), is a species of deciduous flowering plant. The small tree or shrub is native to the southern and eastern parts of the United States, found from Illinois to Virginia in the north and from Texas to Florida in the south. It is hardy far to the north of its native range, with successful cultivation poleward to Arboretum Mustila in Finland.
It has a number of local names, such as scarlet buckeye, woolly buckeye and firecracker plant.
The fruits are rich in saponins, which are poisonous to humans, although not particularly dangerous because they are not ingested easily. The seeds are poisonous. The oils can be extracted to make soap, although this is not viable commercially.
California buckeye · Yellow buckeye · Ohio buckeye · Horse-chestnut · Indian Horse Chestnut · Bottlebrush Buckeye · Buckeyes & Horse-chestnuts
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aesculus pavia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
