Finding the Buckeyes First

In most of the years we’ve lived up here in the High Country of the Appalachians, there have been buckeyes in abundance.

They plonked down on our tin roof, bonked us while walking in the woods, and generally shown up by the hundreds and thousands, all over the place. Like many places in the Appalachian and Smoky mountains, we have a LOT of yellow buckeye trees.

But recently, we’ve found fewer and fewer of the actual seeds, the shiny brown ones that are so fun to pick up and put in a pocket.

I’ve always been told that nothing could eat the buckeyes; that they are too toxic for anything to consume, but my experience has been that this is simply not the case.

Something eats them.

And I think it’s the squirrels and chipmunks, at the very least.

After doing some more research and reading on the subject, I think it’s true that the buckeyes are toxic, but not too toxic.

The native peoples would treat them like they did acorns, leaching out the toxins (which also leaches out the nutrients) to eat the seeds, and I’m starting to believe the small and medium-sized rodents can tolerate them well enough that I can’t find very many before they do.

I tend to find far more chewed open buckeye husks with the seeds having been pried out and carried off.

Here’s one last photo for you, from a walk out to find (only a very few) buckeyes… That’s Pippi in the lead, with Beezus a bit farther behind, and sweet old Rocky, bringing up the rear.