44. Northernmost Horse Chestnut

Remarkably, a horse chestnut finds the Shetland Islands' northern latitude to its liking.

Growing close against the high protective stone wall of eighteenth century Fort Charlotte in the centre of Lerwick, a young horse chestnut, surely the northernmost specimen in Britain or Ireland can be seen. It has every chance of growing into a significant tree (by Shetland standards). Further south, horse chestnuts will flower in May, but this far north, you must visit in midsummer to catch its white flower candles, a spectacle of the ‘simmer dim’.

Species details

Horse Chestnut
Aesculus hippocastanum

Where to find it

Charlotte Street, Lerwick ZE1 0JL
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Horse chestnut notes

Familiar horse chestnuts have been a feature of parks and gardens across these islands since their arrival during the sixteenth century. They are said to have been introduced by John Tradescant the Elder who may have come across the species in Spain or North Africa. It took two more centuries to discover that they actually originate from the Balkans where they grow in just a handful of locations in Albania, Greece, North Macedonia and one location in Bulgaria. 

It is astonishing that a tree from so southerly a latitude is one of only a few that can survive in Shetland. This far north it can flower, albeit late in the season – in London at midsummer the flowers have been over for a month and the leaves are beginning to show signs of damage caused by larvae of horse chestnut leaf miner moths. Given such a short growing season, it is unclear if the Shetland tree can produce ripe conkers…

Signs of leaf miner damage to the leaves of a horse chestnut in south London.

And finally…

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