Horse Chestnut

Nice to see the horse chestnut trees coming into foliage as they look so vibrant and fresh as we move more into springtime. Before this the trees had their "sticky buds" on show.

As the trees develop and display their candle-like flowers we can look forwards to them bearing their fruit afterwards with it's spiky green covering hiding the well known 'conker' within.

As summer starts turning towards early autumn the tree begins to drop it's seeds, the hard brown nut that is the conker, which often bursts open as it lies on the ground. Unfortunately it isn't edible. After this the tree slowly withdraws into it's winter mode until it all starts again the following spring.

Unfortunately the horse chestnut trees in this area are affected by some sort of blight during the summer and this turns their leaves from green to an unattractive orange brown colour with grey specks all over them. Such a shame for such a magnificent tree.