I like to amuse/delude myself by thinking I know it all, especially with knowledge about trees. And then something pops up that throws me, something I hadn’t considered before or had no previous experience with. Bit of a downer, actually, realizing I don’t know everything. Such was my reaction as I encountered the hard-shelled fruits of a yellow buckeye tree.
Yellow buckeye belongs in a group called nut trees, which includes walnuts, butternuts, chestnuts, hickories, and other buckeyes. As they naturally grow within their known ranges of Tennessee, South Carolina and other temperate zones, we do not usually bump into these types of trees around the north end of Simcoe County.
However, that scenario is changing, and has been changing for a few decades. Starting originally with landscape projects and now being used in a methodology called assisted migration, nut trees are becoming part of our local forestry initiatives. There is even a Society of Ontario Nut Growers (SONG) that is promoting the wider use and planting of these hard-shelled fruits.
One of several things that was of interest on its website was that Ferrero Rocher, the company that makes hazelnut confections, is promoting hazelnut tree research near Brantford. If a commercial crop can be established, the hope is to have 5,000 acres of hazelnut trees in Ontario.
Other than oak tree acorns and beechnuts, we are probably most familiar with the black walnut tree. Many trees were planted in Simcoe County starting in the 1960s, usually as specimen trees in front and back yards of new residential subdivisions, or in parklands.
Note that all of these particular trees were imported from the Carolinian area of Ontario; there was some risk at the time that the cold winters and heavy frosts would not allow the walnuts to grow to maturity. Wrong-o. There are currently many very large black walnuts found in all our established residential communities.
A myth of some magnitude circulates around that no other plants will grow near a black walnut as it poisons the soil. The actual answer is both yes and no. There is indeed a toxic substance in walnuts called juglone and, when released into the soil from fallen and rotting leaves, the juglone defends the walnut roots by not allowing other plants to establish themselves.
But here’s where it gets interesting: The plants most affected by this juglone suppression are non-native horticultural garden flower species; native species that have had centuries of growing alongside walnuts continue to live comfortably as they have developed an immunity to juglone.
I mentioned ‘assisted migration’ earlier. As climate change continues to occur at an unprecedented rate, some trees like white spruce are dying out due to the drier soils, but many tree species found in the deep south of Ontario are able to survive these warmer climes just fine.
However, due to this high pace of change, many species do not have the luxury of adapting to this new growing condition over thousands of years; they now have to react within decades. Nature can’t handle that rapidity of change.
And so we have the forestry folks bringing in Carolinian tree species to Simcoe County to ‘assist in this natural migration’ and ensure our local forest will continue to have trees that can handle the drier and warmer times.
All of which brings me back to the opening paragraph, which refers to my current dilemma: What to do with yellow buckeye nuts? I planted a few small trees about eight years ago, and they are now producing an amazing crop of nuts. While trying to find info as to their edibility, I found very little material that supports eating them.
Actually, just the opposite, as the limited info I could root out were several warnings of their poisonous traits to domestic stock (sheep, cattle, horses). It seems the biggest use for buckeye nuts is good-luck charms. Not exactly what I was expecting to learn.
My next step in utilizing these beautiful buckeye nuts is to see if I can find a lottery terminal that is willing to exchange a basket of lucky nuts for tickets.