Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Protected through the summer by its spiny green case, the horse chestnut’s seed ripens out of sight. In autumn the case splits open to release one or two glossy brown conkers, each with a pale patch where it was attached inside. The horse chestnut is not native to Britain: it was brought from the Balkans around 400 years ago and widely planted in parks, on village greens and along streets, including in many mining towns and villages, where trees have stood through generations of change.
Conkers are poisonous to people and many animals, though deer and some other mammals eat them. In recent decades, many trees have been weakened by a leaf-mining moth, which arrived in Britain in 2002 and turns the leaves brown long before autumn, and by a disease called bleeding canker.
Conkers are woven into childhood memories across Britain. The first recorded game of conkers was played on the Isle of Wight in 1848. In the autumn of 1917, schoolchildren and Scouts were asked to collect conkers for the war effort. They were used as a source of starch to make acetone, needed for the explosive cordite, and children were paid for every hundredweight they gathered.
The conker’s year is one of protection and release: sheltered by spines while it grows, then exposed as it falls, vulnerable to frost, animals and passing feet before it can take root.
Protected through the summer by its spiny green case, the horse chestnut’s seed ripens out of sight. In autumn the case splits open to release one or two glossy brown conkers, each with a pale patch where it was attached inside. The horse chestnut is not native to Britain: it was brought from the Balkans around 400 years ago and widely planted in parks, on village greens and along streets, including in many mining towns and villages, where trees have stood through generations of change.
Conkers are poisonous to people and many animals, though deer and some other mammals eat them. In recent decades, many trees have been weakened by a leaf-mining moth, which arrived in Britain in 2002 and turns the leaves brown long before autumn, and by a disease called bleeding canker.
Conkers are woven into childhood memories across Britain. The first recorded game of conkers was played on the Isle of Wight in 1848. In the autumn of 1917, schoolchildren and Scouts were asked to collect conkers for the war effort. They were used as a source of starch to make acetone, needed for the explosive cordite, and children were paid for every hundredweight they gathered.
The conker’s year is one of protection and release: sheltered by spines while it grows, then exposed as it falls, vulnerable to frost, animals and passing feet before it can take root.