DAY 36 (11 MAY) – Red horse-chestnut (Aesculus x carnea)) (Farnham Park)
Today I learnt that this tree with dramatic pink flowers at the entrance to Farnham Park is a hybrid. An unlikely cross between a common horse-chestnut (pictured above right in the background) and the firecracker plant or red buckeye – a shrub native to the southern and eastern United States.
Having a mere shrub as one parent presumably explains why the red horse-chestnut is usually around 20 metres smaller than its other, grander parent.
365 DAYS OF NATURE 