Buckeye, the All-Ohio tree

Did you know that the term "buckeye" was once a derogatory word? In the 1700s and early 1800s, early settlers crossing the Allegheny Mountains into what became Ohio and the surrounding Midwestern states were unfamiliar with only one of the many kinds of trees that grew in that heavily wooded area — the buckeye tree. They gave the tree the name "buckeye" because of the nut's close resemblance to the eye of a buck deer. Going forward, they used "buckeye" to mean "useless" and "shoddy" because that's what they thought of the tree. Although buckeye trees were plentiful along the Ohio River in particular, its fruit (nut) was poisonous to both livestock and to people, the wood was too soft for building, and held too much moisture to burn well. One 1826 newspaper made fun of a candidate for "taking so much pains in electioneering and making your buckeye speeches". One particularly puritanical periodical of the day referred to "buck-eye Christians" who "go to balls" and downplay the "sin" by only dancing "a reel or two." Because the buckeye tree was "new" to those early settlers, in 1803, buckeye nuts (seeds) were collected from an unknown locality in Ohio and sent to Berlin, Germany, to be germinated. Professor Carl Ludwig Wildenow, Director of the Botanical Garden in Berlin, successfully grew the plant into a small tree in his garden. When the small tree flowered, Prof. Wildenow described it as new to science in 1809, and gave it the scientific name Aesculus globra. There are 13 species of Aesculus, six of which are native to the United States. The horse chestnut is really a buckeye, Aesculus hippocastanum and a native of Europe. Most buckeyes are medium-large trees; all have palmately compound leaves. All leaf out early in the spring, and all bear large cone-shaped clusters of flowers, which by midsummer grow into greenish, leathery, often spiny fruits. When the fruits mature, they fall from the trees and split open to reveal the "buckeye" seeds or nuts. The buckeye grows best in USDA zone 4, but is native in a wide range from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and south to Alabama. The buckeye likes silty clay loam, rich in organic matter, slightly acidic and moist but well-drained. Planting buckeye seeds is the best way to grow more buckeye trees. The seeds should not be allowed to dry out, but should either be planted outdoors immediately in the fall, or stored in a refrigerator in bags with moist sphagnum moss to provide 3 months of stratification (cold moist treatment). Then plant the stratified seeds outside in early spring. Seedlings may flower in 2 to 3 years. The buckeye tree, as well as its name, found favor when those early settlers realized the value of the tree. The pioneers could carve the soft buckeye wood easily into troughs, spoons, platters, cradles, boxes, and even artificial limbs. Even though the buckeyes were poisonous, they were attractive, and some people carried them around in their pockets for good luck and to ward off rheumatism. Even some "tall tales" grew along with the buckeye's popularity: "In all our woods there is not a tree so hard to kill as the Buckeye…even after it is cut down and worked up into the side of a cabin it will send out young branches, denoting to the entire world that Buckeyes are not easily conquered and could with difficulty be destroyed." William Henry Harrison is credited with spreading the "fame" of the buckeye across the young U.S.A. In the presidential election of 1840, candidate Harrison touted himself as a war hero and frontiersman living near Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River, rather than as an aristocrat from Virginia whose father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. At the Whig party's convention that year, Harrison's delegates carried buckeye canes decorated with strings of buckeye nuts. The buckeye nut became a precursor to today's campaign buttons. Buckeye necklaces became fashionable. Buckeye log cabins were built on wagons and appeared in many town parades. There was even a song, "Bonnie Buckeye State." To be from Ohio, a "Buckeye", became popular. In 1953, the buckeye became the state tree of Ohio, the only state to claim the buckeye as its state tree. During the 1920s the buckeye became the unofficial symbol of the Ohio State University thanks to the news media. In 1930, a recent OSU grad Milton Caniff, designed and promoted a logo featuring a buckeye leaf and several buckeye fruits. The logo became OSU's official logo in 1950. It is unusual for the name of a tree to be a university nickname, but as a Campus Resource Guide from OSU states, the buckeye "…is native, tenacious, attractive and unique — traits that Ohioans and Ohio State alumni are proud with which to be associated."