Friday 4 November 2022

A is for acorns

If you’re like me and you love nothing more than scuffing your way through fallen autumn leaves, then you might have noticed considerably more acorns lying beneath the branches of the oak trees than we’ve seen for a while. 



When I last did this in earnest, I was looking more at the oak trees, in preparation for writing an entry in ‘Loughborough A-Z’ which eventually turned out like this:

"Q is for … Quercus Petraea

The Outwoods, an area popular with Loughborough people, is an ancient woodland populated with native oak trees of the sessile variety, Quercus Petraea. The Holywell Woods also hosts Quercus Petraea, along with the native pedunculate oak, Quercus Robur, and ash and silver birch. The leaves of Quercus Petraea have stalks but the acorns don’t, while the leaves of Quercus Robur don’t have stalks, but the acorns do. The English Oak tree is one of the locally sourced, native species of memorial trees available at the Natural Burial Ground in nearby Prestwold and is also used to make memorial benches."

This year, 2022, however, the leaves have fallen far earlier in the year than I can ever remember, possibly due to the lack of rain, and the need for the tree to put all its energy into its trunk, branches, and seeds. When I saw so many acorns dropping, I did wonder if I simply hadn’t been paying enough attention in previous years, but I was relieved to learn that this wasn’t the case! 

I had forgotten that this year was likely to be a mast year, a year in which the oak tree intentionally produces more acorns than in the previous 3 or 4 years, perhaps to ensure that there are far too many to be eaten by squirrels and other creatures, so that there is more chance more oak trees will grow. This mast year happens every 4 or 5 years, and is followed by low acorn production in subsequent years.

Fallen oak leaves, March 2020


However, it appears that 2020 was also a mast year, and that was only 2 years ago. And, in November 2021, the Woodland Trust expressed its concern for the native oak tree, as lack of rainfall can cause oak trees to be more likely to decline. The Tree Council, however, suggest that while there can be several consecutive years of low acorn production, it is rather more unusual to see mast years together, but nevertheless they have suggested that most oak trees seem to be doing well this year.  

So look out in 2026 or 2027 for a bountiful crop of acorns, maybe some new, infant trees, and hopefully some very healthy adult trees!

Autumn leaves on Steeple Row, 2013

____________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog. You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2022). A is for Acorns. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-is-for-acorns.html [Accessed 4 November 2022]

Take down policy:
I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne 

No comments:

Post a Comment

If you have found this post interesting or have any questions about any of the information in it do please leave a comment below. In order to answer your question, I must publish your query here, and then respond to it here. If your information is private or sensitive, and you don't wish to have it on public display, it might be a better idea to email me using the address which is on the About Me page, using the usual substitutions. Thanks for reading the blog.