The common horse chestnut trees look like Christmas trees hung with candle-like clusters of white flowers, showy and beautiful. They flower in late spring and their fruits mature in September and October releasing shiny brown seeds (which look no different from the edible sweet chestnuts but are poisonous to human).

Before the flowers mature and turn white, they are yellow but equally attractive.  

I remember last November, I saw many children pick up the chestnuts fallen from these trees. I thought they were edible and followed the same. I picked more than 50 chestnuts and passed them to my friend for cooking but my friend told me they were too bitter to eat. (Thank god they were bitter otherwise my friend and I would be poisoned!) I believe the children collected these chestnuts for fun, but not for cooking.