Nuts

One of the pick-me-ups from the recent visit to Wisley was a handful of nuts, about the size and not unlike conkers. One had now been cut in half, revealing a nascent shoot, tucked in behind a fold of the skin. I thought at first that this fold was a bug, but now I think it is a feature - to use jargon from the world of computer software.

Unfortunately, neither BH nor I thought to mark down the tree concerned, somewhere, I think, near the alpine houses, above what their map calls the alpine meadow. Neither sweet nor horse chestnut. So a task for the next visit is to track it down again and identify it.

In the meantime, the surviving three nuts have been dropped down holes in the new daffodil bed. Maybe something will come up in the spring. Hopefully conspicuously enough that I give it a bit of space.

And a quick Bing offers the buckeye, from Ohio, as one possibility. According to Wikipedia: 'Aesculus glabra, commonly known as Ohio buckeye, is a species of tree in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) native to North America'. Which last include the horse chestnut, the maples and that favourite dessert from the Chinese restaurants of my youth, the lychee.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/winter-wisley.html.