Aesculus splendens
Scarlet Buckeye
- Type
- Tree
- Hardiness
- USDA Zones 6–9
- Sun
- Full Sun, Part Shade
- Soil
- Moist, Well-drained
- Mature size
- Height 10–15 Feet · Spread 10–15 Feet
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Seasonality
- Deciduous
This variety is no actively in production in our propagation house and may not return to our catalogue. We maintain this page purely for reference and archival purposes. If you would like to grow this plant, tell us. Your interest helps guide what we bring back.
For a larger installation or commercial project, write hello@woodlanders.net.
A red or scarlet flowered buckeye of the Gulf Coast, Aesculus splendens stands close to the red buckeye, Aesculus pavia, and may be no more than a striking form of that species. Dirr, in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, notes that Rehder listed this buckeye as a distinct species and that several horticulturists feel strongly about the authenticity, the chief differences being scarlet flowers and leaves felted on the undersides. Native to Louisiana and perhaps other Gulf Coast states, the scarlet buckeye is grown much as the red buckeye is.
Like the red buckeye, the scarlet buckeye opens panicles of vivid red flowers in spring, an early feast for returning hummingbirds, and carries the family's lustrous palmate leaves that break early in the season. The brilliant bloom, set against the soft-haired foliage, gives the plant a quiet distinction whether or not the botanists ever settle the name.
A small tree or large shrub for sun to part shade and moist, well-drained soil, lovely at a woodland edge or in a native border among azaleas and dogwoods of the same season. As with all buckeyes, the seeds and young growth are poisonous, so site the bright seeds away from children and livestock.
Scarlet panicles in spring