Aesculus pavia

The red buckeye or firecracker plant is in the horse chestnut or Hippocastanaceae family and is native to the southern and eastern parts of the United States, found from Illinois to Virginia in the north and from Texas to Florida in the south. It is a large shrub or small tree, often with multiple stems, reaching up to 8 m tall.

• Leaves are opposite, palmately compound with usually 5 leaflets. Each leaflet is 10–15 cm long and 4–6 cm across.
• Flowers are hermaphrodite, in 10-18 cm long panicles of dark red, tubular flowers in the spring.
• Fruit is reddish brown, round, smooth, 2.5-5 cm in diameter capsule whose husk opens in early fall to release 1-3 seeds called buckeyes 2.5 cm across in the fall.