The Horse Chestnut tree is not primarily a woodland tree, but a number of examples are found across the wood, such as the above specimen in the car park. Distinguished from the far more common Sweet Chestnut by having palmate leaves (stems emanate from a single point on the stem) and in the autumn the ‘conkers’ are easily distinguished from the spiky chestnuts.
Horse Chestnuts suffer from a number of diseases. The horse chestnut leaf miner can occur on trees in huge numbers, causing the foliage to turn brown and fall early, though this doesn’t seem to kill the tree.
The largest example in the wood is the School Camp glade, but it is very old and almost entirely dead save for one branch.
More images of Horse Chestnut:
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