Wooden Flooring and Decking

Wild Chestnut

The Wood:

Lighter than Oak, attractive, strong, and heavy, 640kg/m3.

^BHorse chestnut tree^b (^IAesculus^i ^Ihippocastanum^i). This deciduous tree can reach a height of around 30 metres. It flowers from May to June, and its seeds (conkers) are dropped in September. The leaves are normally green, but change colour and drop off the tree in autumn. Autumn leaves are seen on the ground around this tree, and the leaves on the right-hand side of the tree have turned yellow. This is mostly due to a reduction in the amount of chlorophyll, the pigment that gives leaves their normal green colour. This reduction is also seen in trees with chlorophyll deficiency (^Ichlorosis^i), and reveals the other pigments in the leaves. Photographed in Hyde Park, London, UK.

The Tree:

 Medium-sized, evergreen, fast growing tree reaching heights of up to 65.6 feet (20m) with a trunk of up to 31 inches (800mm) in diameter. The leaved are large, palmately compound; leaflets 5-7, lanceolate shaped and shiny. The flowers are usually solitary, large and elongated, very fragrant, self-fertilized, with long, uniformly curved reddish-brown petals and numerous, very long filaments, up to 10cm long, in attractive clusters. These clustered filaments give an appearance of a shaving brush; hence the tree is called the Shaving Brush Tree in some places.

Colour:

 Yellowish sapwood and dark brown heartwood turning ochre when exposed to air.

Typical uses:

 Doors, windows, flooring.

Source region:

 South America