False-colour photograph of the large compound leaves from a horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum. Each compound leaf is made up of several spreading leaflets which are unstalked. This type of compound leaf is known as palmate. In the early spring the leaf buds are large, red- brown and sticky. The horse chestnut arrived in England from Greece in 1616. It can grow to 38 meters in height and over 2 meters in the diameter of the bole.