Tree/shrub

[Razorback]

This doesn't look like something I want to have. Doesn't look very Arkansas-y.

 

[Native Hunter]

Looks like Red Buckeye to me. There are probably 2 - 4 different varieties of buckeye down your way - all in the Horse Chestnut family if I remember correctly.

 

[Razorback]

Googled it and you are correct. The flowers and shoots are poisonous and "indigenous people crushed these parts and put them in water to stupefy fish for easier capture."

 

[Native Hunter]

Actually the seed, bark and leaves are poisonous as well.

When I was a kid, old timers told me that one side of a buckeye was poisonous and the other side wasn't. And that squirrels knew which side to eat and which one to leave alone. They actually believed that and I did too for a long time.

It is true that squirrels will cut on them some. I've read that they are the only animal that has immunity. If cows eat them it's bye bye.

 

[j-bird]

It they are at all like the buckeye I have they are pretty useless from a wildlife and timber perspective unless you want something to cut on with a pocket knife. Mine meet the chainsaw!