Horse Chestnut Trees can live for more than 300 years.
They drop chestnuts, or “Conkers” in Autumn.
These are not your sweet edible chestnuts but are more bitter in flavour and highly medicinal. Horse chestnuts are highly antioxidant and it’s thought they may increase the effects of pre-biotics.
Historically, horse chestnut was used for joint pain, bladder and gastrointestinal problems, fever, leg cramps, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, male infertility, wound healing, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, cancers and much more.
Today, horse chestnut is promoted for chronic venous insufficiency (CVI; poor blood flow in the veins of the legs, which may lead to leg pain, swelling, itchiness, and other symptoms), varicose veins and irritable bowel syndrome.
The name of the tree may have come from its historical use to treat horses for cough and parasite worms and was also used as a stimulant to make their coats shiny.
This is a truly magnificent tree, for many reasons.