''Aesculus'' × ''carnea'', or red horse-chestnut, is a medium-sized tree, an artificial hybrid between '' A. pavia'' (red buckeye) and '' A. hippocastanum'' (horse-chestnut). Its origin uncertain, probably appearing in Germany before 1820. It is a popular tree in large gardens and parks; and is even present in Hyde Park, London. ''Aesculus'' × ''carneas features are typically intermediate between the parent species, but it inherits the red flower color from ''A. pavia''. Its showy flowers are borne in plumes on branch ends, blooming in spring and producing leathery fruit capsules in fall. It grows up to tall and wide, with a round head that casts dense shade when mature. Its leaves are dark green, palmately compound, and deciduous, each leaf divided into five large, toothed leaflets.

Cultivars

* 'Briotii' (named in 1858 to honor Pierre Louis Briot (1804–1888), the chief

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

of the State gardens at Trianon-Versailles near Paris, France) This is the most commonly seen

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

which has 10-inch tall, deep rosy flowers and matures as a smaller tree. * 'O'Neil', which produce larger (10–12 inch) panicles with brighter red flowers. * '

Fort McNair Fort Lesley J. McNair, also historically known as the Washington Arsenal, is a United States Army post located on the tip of Buzzard Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D ...

' (named from where it was selected) it has dark pink flowers with yellow throats and resists leaf scorch and leaf blotch. * 'Pendula' with arching branches. * 'Plantierensis' which has intense rose pink flowers with yellow throats and does not set fruit, which makes it less messy.

References

Flora of Europe carnea Interspecific plant hybrids {{Sapindales-stub