Aesculus parviflora is a species of Aesculus

Aesculus

The genus Aesculus comprises 13-19 species of woody trees and shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere, with 6 species native to North America and 7-13 species native to Eurasia; there are also several hybrids. Species are deciduous or evergreen...

native to open woodlands of the southeastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

It is a deciduous

Deciduous

Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

 suckering shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 growing to 3-5 m tall. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are arranged in opposite pairs, palmately compound with 5-7 leaflets, each leaflet short-stalked, 12-22 cm long and 5-10 cm broad, with an entire margin. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are produced in conspicuous erect panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

s 20-30 cm long resembling a traditional bottle

Bottle

A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth". By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening. Bottles are often made of glass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and typically used to store liquids such as water, milk, soft...

 brush

Brush

A brush is a tool with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, grooming hair, make up, painting, surface finishing and for many other purposes. It is one of the most basic and versatile tools known to mankind, and the average household may contain several dozen varieties...

, each flower with a tubular calyx

Sepal

A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...

, small white petals, and several protruding 3-4 cm long stamens .

Cultivation and uses

It is grown as an ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

 in gardens, where its August flowering attracts butterflies

Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden is a life simulation game by independent developer Autonomous Productions, revolving around the raising and collecting of butterflies. Initially for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, the developers have promised there will be a PC version and WiiWare version...

. The naturalist, explorer and plant collector William Bartram

William Bartram

William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...

 first noted this undescribed shrub on his travels through Carolina, Georgia and Florida in 1773-78. Though an old example was still to be found in Bartram's Garden

Bartram's Garden

Bartram's Garden which covers is the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, including an historic botanical garden and arboretum , located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park, near the intersection of 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

, Philadelphia, in 1930, the shrub has never become common in Eastern American gardens.

Aesculus parviflora was introduced to British horticulture through the activities of John Fraser

John Fraser

-Politics:*John James Fraser , Canadian politician*John Fraser , Canadian Member of Parliament for Lambton East, Ontario...

, who made his first botanizing trip through the American South in 1785. Fraser's finds were distributed among English nurserymen like Lee and Kennedy

Lee and Kennedy

Lee and Kennedy were prominent nurserymen in three generations at The Vineyard, in Hammersmith, west of London."For many years," wrote John Claudius Loudon in 1854 "this nursery was deservedly considered the first in the world." The partnership was originated with a nurseryman, Lewis Kennedy , who...

 or Loddiges

Loddiges

The Loddiges family managed one of the most notable of the eighteenth and nineteenth century plant nurseries that traded in and introduced exotic plants, trees, shrubs, ferns, palms and orchids into European gardens....

or to private patrons, and the shrub was "to be met with in most of our nurseries" by 1820.