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Horsechestnut

Aesculus hippocastanum · Sapindaceae · all Aesculus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: 1 condition stated in cited fire-evidence rows.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 7 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; New Zealand; Ohio / Midwest; Oregon; Tasmania, Australia; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 7 scopes across 5 cited fire sources

Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
- Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
  The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) · Official scoped edition
- MD; partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-08
  Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
- NJ; partial normalized coverage
  New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
- WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
  West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · Official scoped edition
- MI; partial normalized coverage · 2007-01-01
  Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01
  Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, WA, WV.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 26 sourced range or established records; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness: Documented range 4–7.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

Fire-resistant. Recommended by 4 of 5 independent primary-evidence lineages; the Tasmania Fire Service list dissents. The majority direction lists it — the dissent is shown in full below, never averaged away.

▲ the Eastern US Fire Performance Plant Selector ▲ Michigan's E2948 list ▲ Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes ▲ Guía de pirojardinería ▼ the Tasmania Fire Service list ◆ the Idaho Firewise field scores · fire-tested ◆ New Zealand's FENZ laboratory directory · fire-tested

Computed class: Fire-resistant (majority) — derived from the cited evidence by a published rule, never hand-assigned. Each chip above is one independent primary-evidence lineage and its direction. No plant is fireproof; condition and placement govern. Zone 0 is hardscape regardless.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Horsechestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) — Photo: no rights reserved (CC0), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: 4–7
Mature height: ~50 ft
Light: Full sun
Grows in: CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY +16
Rated in: British Columbia; Catalonia, Spain; Global; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia +8
Family: Sapindaceae
Evidence: 15 cited sources

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

0

exact source areas

Current introduced

25

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

25 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Alabama (AL)
Connecticut (CT)
District of Columbia (DC)
Georgia (GA)
Iowa (IA)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Kentucky (KY)
Massachusetts (MA)
Maryland (MD)
Maine (ME)
Michigan (MI)
North Carolina (NC)
New Jersey (NJ)
New York (NY)
Ohio (OH)
Oregon (OR)
Pennsylvania (PA)
Rhode I. (RI)
South Carolina (SC)
Virginia (VA)
Vermont (VT)
Washington (WA)
Wisconsin (WI)
West Virginia (WV)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record aesculus-hippocastanum · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Aesculus hippocastanum · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · record tree:Aesculus hippocastanum · New, January 2007 · as of 2026-08-26

4–7 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Aesculus hippocastanum · exact match.

Source location: Table 1, tree row.

Conditions in the fire evidence

These describe tested or rated plant material. They are not horticultural maintenance instructions.

green: Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes evidence row

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 3 — 10–30 ft from the structure; thin vegetation, remove debris, and minimize plant massing [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (mid-scale rating)
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 50' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (mid-scale rating)
Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rur…: remove from the Building Protection Zone; avoid in the Fuel Modified Zone [Texas Building Protection Zone] (with its avoid rating)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone (30-100 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes: Oregon [osu-frn6-oregon-regions] (with its recommendation)
Guía de pirojardinería: suitable inside or outside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Deciduous Trees [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (7)

Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) — Ohio State University Extension (Sydnor, Steward, Kloss / Ohio DNR Division of Forestry) · 2006 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“L flammability”

Susceptible to many diseases; pH adaptable; urban tolerant.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) — Virginia Cooperative Extension / Virginia Tech (Appleton, Frenzel, Hillegass, Lyons, Steward — Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force) · 2009 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“L flammability”

Susceptible to many diseases, pH adaptable. Not heat tolerant.
FireSmart BC Plant Program — fire-resistant plant chart — FireSmart BC · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: firesmart-bc-plant-database

“FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant”
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) — Michigan State University Extension (Hansen, Fernandez) · New, January 2007 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated

“considered wildfire-resistant and are recommended for Michigan’s climate”

Table 1 row: Aesculus hippocastanum (Horsechestnut).
Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes — Oregon State University Extension Service · Forest Resource Note No. 6 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: pnw590-tree

“Fire-Resistant Plant Materials for Oregon” · condition: green

Aesculus hippocastanum (Horsechestnut) is listed under “Trees—deciduous”. The guide says most listed plants require some irrigation during Oregon's dry summer months and must be maintained in a healthy condition.
Guía de pirojardinería — guía práctica de jardinería adaptada a la prevención de incendios forestales — Diputació de Girona and Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya · 2020 Spanish edition · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: elvira-hernando-1989 + cooperem-tree

“RECOMENDADA”

Aesculus hippocastanum is rated “RECOMENDADA” by the guide's qualitative IUF garden-suitability method. The method assumes species-specific care and integrates fire evidence with fuel structure, maintenance, origin, invasiveness, and expert fire-service experience.
Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) — Maryland DNR, New Jersey DEP, and West Virginia Division of Forestry · 2015 archived PDF · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: md-nj-wv-template-family

“relatively resistant to fire”

Listed as Aesculus hippocastanum (Horsechestnut). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Susceptible to many diseases, not heat tolerant. pH adaptable

Avoids (1)

Fire Resisting Garden Plants for the Urban Fringe and Rural Areas — Tasmania Fire Service (Chladil & Sheridan; photographs Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens) · 2017 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: utas-tree

“High Flammability”

Mid-scale / conditional (3)

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector — USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF + state Firewise programs (WV, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, NJ) · 2016-wayback · original source Primary evidence Keyed curation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“MODERATELY Firewise (2)”

Often branched to the ground and may need pruning up to prevent ladder potential.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database — Idaho Firewise (BLM + College of Western Idaho + Idaho Botanical Garden) · original source Primary evidence Field program lineage: idaho-tree

“fire-resistance score 6 of 10” · score 6 (idaho-0-10)
Low Flammability Plants directory — Fire and Emergency New Zealand (plant flammability testing at Lincoln University) · 2026 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: lincoln-nz-tree

“Moderate flammability”

Moderate flammability classification. Flagged poisonous in the FENZ directory.

Listed without a rating (4)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

4 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “ignition frequency (%): 100” · score 100 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 1325; Ignitability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 456” · score 456 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 1519; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “burning duration (s): 11” · score 11 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1713; Sustainability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “estimated burnt biomass (%): 20” · score 20 (FLAMITS — estimated burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 1907; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Aesculus hippocastanum (Horsechestnut). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/aesculus-hippocastanum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.