horse chestnut

Tree species: horse chestnut

Color: white-beige, cream (false core brown to reddish dark brown)

Hardness: medium (similar to lime and alder)

Characteristics: light-colored, homogeneous plain hardwood, similar to poplar (only a little harder), usually twisted

Heartwood formation: horse chestnut is a sapwood tree (wood species with delayed heartwood formation), it usually does not form (except for false/colored heartwood) a (almost no) different colored heartwood, but the sapwood and the heartwood are uniformly colored.

Psychological Correspondence: As a power tree, the horse chestnut radiates a lot of warmth and supports grounding and rooting in the here and now. It helps people face reality and find the right place in life. Another theme is the collection and focus on the essential, which can be read from the signature of the fruits and leaves. The uplifting powers of the tree are evident in the flowers. The tree has predominantly round and radiating elements. From this, the centering effects of the plant are derived.

Properties/Use: Fruits, like soap nuts, can be used to clean laundry or as a bath additive. In the past they were fed to horses, i.e. steeds, hence the name. The shells are suitable as a dye for wool and hair. The wood is suitable for carving, turning, sculpting, veneering, furniture making (in the past, kitchen tables were popularly made from it), shoe making (shoemaker's lasts, wooden shoes), chip baskets, fruit and vegetable crates, blind wood in furniture making/door making, orthopedic purposes/prostheses, kitchen utensils, brush styles, handles for tennis, squash, badminton rackets....

Value/availability: rare (also because of the twisting growth), rather cheap wood

Cutting time in arboriculture: in summer (from about May to August), after full leaf sprout

Segregation behavior: low

Pruning and wound closure: according to current guidelines ZTV Baumpflege, before knot ring up to (as far as possible) max. 10 cm diameter, no wound closure (as ineffective).

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Sources of the information:

• My own experience/knowledge and documents from my wood economics studies at the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences.
• Native timber (loose-leaf collection) Authors D. Grosser and W. Teetz. CMA, Bonn-publisher -Holzabsatzfonds-Bonn 1998
• Book Volker Drolshagen/Karin Hoffmann: The Language of Trees (1997)
• Website https://www.everyday-feng-shui.de