As if a 2-10 season, the lost 33 year bowl streak, and the free fall into the laughing stock program in college football is not enough -- now we have to deal with this:According to the National Wildlife Federation: global warming is pushing the growing range for the ohio buckeye tree north. Left unchecked this will make the buckeye tree more common in Michigan. Obviously this can NOT be tolerated - and a group of concerned environmentalists have started a campaign to STOP THE BUCKEYE. I saw them giving out information at the M-MSU game and saw a couple of billboards on 1-94 between Ann Arbor and the Detroit airport.
A little history: The name Buckeye comes from the folklore of the Native Americans who noticed that the nut of the Buckeye tree resembles the eye of a buck deer = a buck eye. The symbol of General William Henry Harrison's 1840 presidential campaign was a string of buckeyes and a log cabin decorated with raccoon skins. His campaign song called Ohio the bonnie Buckeye state, as a result citizens in Ohio became know as "Buckeyes". Harrison won, but after delivering the longest ever inaugural address on a very cold and windy March day, He developed pneumonia and died exactly a month after his inauguration. On October 2, 1953 the buckeye tree officially became the Ohio state tree.
The tree species Aesculus glabra is commonly known as Ohio buckeye (or fetid buckeye). It derives this unflattering name from the disagreeable odor generated from the flowers when they are crushed (seriously, how ironic is that ?). The fruits contain tannic acid and are poisonous for cattle and humans. People wondering if they can eat buckeyes can do so, but only after they have been heated and leached to remove the poison.
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7 comments:
Ah, pushaw. You know we just grow on you.
If only wolverines would migrate out of MI (do they even really reside there?) into OH and eat all the damn squirrels it would be a fair trade.
actually, buckeye trees aren't all that popular in central ohio.
you can't buy them potted for replanting. you have to start w/ a "split" from a live tree that's been grown in water for a while to create its own root structure.
you then plant what is basically a stick and hope it grows. when it does grow, you have this rather nondescript tree that drops poisonous fruit that smell bad and eff up your mower blade.
they also take forever to grow. i am the only person in my entire subdivision to have one in his yard. in seven years it has grown from about 18 inches to about 4 ft at the most. it will take another decade for it to bear fruit.
they are really over rated
uh, SiC...
WHY on earth would you have a buckeye tree on purpose?????
Uh, T-9,
Why would you have a Detroit on purpose?
A friend of mine who used to live in Ohio said he saw more buckeye trees in Michigan than Ohio.
T9,
my step son was 9 at the time. a "friend" offered us a buckeye seedling and the kid got so excited, i just couldn't tell him "no".
besides, growing buckeyes is a bit of a michigan tradition- i think #1 fairway on the michigan golf course has a stand of buckeyes just off the tee box.
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