Conkers and you

[Brazen]

I was out running yesterday and I couldn't help picking up the first shiny new conkers the season. I posted about it on Facebook and some USAnian friends confessed ignorance to the fruit of the horse chestnut tree, and even doubted whether they even grow there.



Do you get conkers where you are, and if so did you play conkers as a kid? If not are you some kind of maladjusted freak?

[derspiess]

Yeah, we have them here.  Ed probably wears necklaces made of them to football games (as to whether he admits to it I'm not sure).  We call them buckeyes.  People from Ohio are also called Buckeyes. 

And here's something to give you nightmares:

[celedhring]

We used to have horse chestnut trees in my area when I was a kid, but they seem to have progressively disappeared. We never used the fruits to play or anything, since they are toxic (or so I was told as a kid).

[Brazen]

Apparently they're almost, but not quite, teh same thing.
"In America, the native "Buckeye" tree is the short name for California Buckeye. Its latin name is Aesculusglabra californica.

In Europe, or England to be exact, the native tree there is the Horse Chestnut sometimes referred to as Buckeye or Conker. Conker, you should know is just a slang word that comes from the fact that the chestnuts are protected by a spikey shell that can really hurt as they often fall without warning and can hit or "conk" you in the head. The word Conker just kind of took hold in common language at some point. The latin name for Horse Chestnut is Aesculus hippocastinum.

The first word in a latin name is the genus of the species telling us where it came from and how it is related to others. In order to be considered even related, these two trees would have to share a common genus name and they don't, so to answer your question, "no, they are not the same tree."

HOWEVER, not every tree we see is native. Some have been introduced to other continents by people bringing nuts to plant or baby trees over, so although one tree belongs to North America and one to Europe, both trees could very well be growing in the same location and they both look very similar to eachother to the untrained eye. To answer your question with any authority, you have to know how to tell the difference between the two types of trees or you'll never know for sure."

And to clarify one point:
"The Ohio buckeye is:
Aesculus glabra (Hippocastanaceae)

The British Horse Chestnut or Conker Tree is:
Aesculus hippocastanum (Hippocastanaceae)

The plants are both in the genus Aesculus in the family Hippocastanaceae but they are different species (second parts of their 2-part scientific names are different)."

Conkers are toxic, but you don't have to eat them to play with them!

[derspiess]

Sometimes an Aesculus is just an Aesculus 

[celedhring]

Now that I think of it we might have used them to throw them at cans, etc... when I was a kid. It's all blurry.

[mongers]

Very timely thread, it reminds me I need to get out into the forest and harass some sweet chestnut trees.   

[Tamas]

We had plenty. There was a chestnut tree hanging over the tiny alleyway-ish road next to the Calvinist church's yard, that's where I got most of it.

It is best for dessert though:



http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/hungariandesserts/r/Hungarian-Chestnut-Puree-Recipe-Gesztenyepure.htm

[Brazen]

Roast chestnuts - one of the few things I'll purchase from street vendors and one of the few things I look forward to winter for.

[Pedrito]

Tamas, should you make that cake with horse chestnuts, you'd end up intoxicated. The cake is made with edible chestnuts: conkers are completely smooth, chestnuts have a small flock of hair at the top.  And they are best roasted on an open flame

Responding to the OP, yes, we have them here, we call them "marroni" or "mad chestnuts", and no, I never played conkers and don't know what it is,  so yes, I'm a maladjusted freak.
But some time ago I discovered that in some areas of Italy there's the belief that a conker kept in the trousers' front pocket protects from throat ache.
I realize that this last sentence makes me seem even more maladjusted.

L.

[celedhring]

Oh, and in Spain they are called "Castaño de Indias", which would suggest they were brought from America. A wikipedia search says they are native to the Balkans, though.

[Warspite]

What scoring system did you use? We had inherited scores, e.g. if your two-er beat a fifteener, it became a eighteener.

Oh, this takes me back... the ingenuity we had in hardening our conkers. Dehumidifier; soaking in vinegar; storing for two+ years; coating in varnish; coating in WD40 (still don't know what the logic behind that one was); cooking in the oven.... and yet all could be lost by a cruel stampsies.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Yeah, we used to add the scores, so a gnarled old conker might get to 80 or more. The senior conkers had to be carefully examined though, before risking them in another bout.

[The Brain]

We played with them when I was a kid. They're shiny.

[Martinus]

Very timely thread, it reminds me I need to get out into the forest and harass some sweet chestnut trees.   

What the fuck? Why would someone adult to that?