Conkers-horse chestnut seeds are ripe!

Welcome to Macro Flowers Saturday round 72!

Conkers are done and ready for the game.
Do you know what conkers are?

Conkers is a traditional children's game played using the seeds of horse-chestnut trees. The name "conker" is also applied to the Horse chestnut-Aesculus hippocastanum tree seed and to the tree itself, in some parts of the world.

Horse chestnut-Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree, also known as Conker tree. This beautiful ornamental with white blossoms in May, grows to 36 m tall, with a domed crown of stout branches.
Aesculus hippocastanum is native to a small area of the Balkans in southeast Europe, but widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. The North American species in the same family are the buckeyes.

The fruit matures to a 2–6 cm diameter, globose, spiky capsule, that splits into three sections, releasing 1-3 glossy, dark-brown seeds. With these seeds children play the conker game, at least they did before the computer era.

The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string. They take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks.

Our red flowering variety, another members of the genus that we often call the Red horse chestnut (Aesculus × carnea) is a hybrid between Aesculus hippocastanum and the Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia), or Firecracker Plant.

Have a great weekend!

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