Conkers bonkers

When I was a kid,  nothing could be more thrilling than finding conkers under a horse-chestnut tree in autumn.  The nut, up to 4 cm in diameter, is shiny and smooth, with a scar on one side.   The spiky fruit opens as if it has been scored with a knife, so straight is the cut,  and the conker tumbles out of the fruit, usually one but sometimes two or three.

The horse-chestnut tree is a huge beast.  Massive boughs, five to seven sprigged gigantic leaves, large white  towers of flowers with small pink dots on the petals, and of course, a big scent.  Wrongly called a chestnut, though might be poisonous to horses. The conker does contain toxic saponins.  However, whether there is any truth to the belief that they keep away spiders is not known.

Aesculus hippocastanum