This year I have started to collect conkers. My uncle in Kent has two huge conker trees in his garden. When we visited his cottage from Bury St Edmunds, I started collecting at once – I got roughly 200 to 300! Later on, with Mum’s help, I collected lots more. Then my uncle taught me how to play conkers.
In these paragraphs you will find more information about horse chestnuts. You might call them native trees, but really they come Greece and Turkey and other countries in that area. They were imported in the 1500s. Also, many conker trees suffer from bleeding canker. This blocks up the tree veins, causing certain death. It can be dangerous for people as well, not because we get infected, but because dead branches can fall down without warning.
Conker trees also get attacked by the leaf miner moth, although it doesn’t kill them, it just makes the leaves fall too early. My uncle’s trees are infested with their larvae but they still have lots of conkers.
Conker trees are fabulous trees. They grow quite quickly to about 40 metres and live for roughly 300 years. The ones in my uncle’s garden gave me 1,032 conkers. They’re about 100 years old and the best conker trees ever.
John, 10
• Read today’s other YCD, by Joseph, 11: “Grandma’s favourite walk was to see the herons”
