April | 2019 | Garden Variety Life

Curious about how to ID a Horse-chestnut no matter what the season?

Chestnut lined street (behind Hillside Mall), Castanea,, conker tree, garden Vancouver Island Island Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Here’s today’s fun fact…

Chestnuts and Horse-chestnuts look very similar. But they’re not even related. Chestnuts are kin to beech trees. Horse-Chestnuts are part of the soapberry family. (Go figure!)

They’re both grown as boulevard trees around Victoria to great effect.

chestnut conker, Castanea, garden Vancouver Island Island Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Wouldn’t it be romantic to collect chestnuts for roasting on an open fire – – you know, like the song?
For sure!
But here’s the catch…

The Horse-chestnuts are poisonous.

It’s essential to collect the right nuts.

Aesculus hippocastanum, horse-chestnut, horse-chestnut, horse chestnut, conker tree, garden Vancouver Island Island Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

I thought they were easy to ID in the spring. I’d see some trees with pink blooms & others with white flowers.
Simple, right?
Turns out, each species has varieties with pink blooms & varieties with white.
So much for that theory.

Even if that had been a handy trick, there’s still another catch. The blossoms don’t last very long & then I have to rely on the memory of which was which.
(Not a great guarantee).

It’s recently come to my attention that there’s a simple way to ID the Horse-chestnut at any time of year: Look closely at the branches. Along the branch, just beside where the leaf joins the twig, is a little U-shaped mark of a horseshoe — nails & all.
How cute is that?? A horseshoe mark on a Horse-chestnut.

Today’s fun fact comes to you via Jeff, the woodland gardener of Royal Roads University at Hatley Park National Historic Site.

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viola glabella, stream violet, pioneer violet, yellow wood violet, smooth yellow violet, wild yellow violets, Goldstream Park, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

It is on a spring walk through Goldstream Park that we spot wild yellow violets.

So tiny!
But so precious!
(It’s very rare for me to catch sight of this native wildflower.)

It was SM who spotted them. Once we saw the first one, we noticed a few more further along the trail.

These are Viola glabella, AKA yellow wood violet, stream violet, pioneer violet, or smooth yellow violet.

They enjoy the moist woodlands of the Pacific Northwest & are even found along Asia’s Pacific Northeast.
🙂
I wonder how many more names they have there?

Last year I finally saw the endangered yellow montane violet (Viola praemorsa) at Playfair Park. It has fuzzy leaves & prefers Garry oak meadows. This trailside violet is definitely not it.

viola glabella, stream violet, pioneer violet, yellow wood violet, smooth yellow violet, wild yellow violets, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

There’s another similar yellow violet, Viola pubescens, but it’s native to the eastern side of our continent. It’s definitely not this one either.

I first encountered yellow wood violets in a municipal campground in Washington State. Perhaps that patch was more mature, or further into it’s growing season because it was a larger clump.

Maybe it was bigger because it had a bit more sunshine? (Our walk at Goldstream Park was through lots of tall trees.)

I can easily imagine wanting some yellow wood violets in our own (dry) woodland garden if we weren’t tending a meadow of the western dog violet (Viola adunca).

Another friend (PS) has yellow wood violets in her irrigated woodland garden. They’re doing well & are slowly spreading between the other perennials. The challenge is sharing ground with the more persistent & dry tolerant western dog violet. They look so similar that it’s only when a dog violet blooms (purple) that PS digs it out, giving the yellow violets priority. It’s a longterm strategy. I have my fingers crossed for her.

On second thought, maybe I could find an isolated, shady spot in our yard where there are no dog violets & enough moisture…

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SVSeekins