Don't See Acorns - But Is this an Oak Tree?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Kasimac offers an example of natural cycling that may well account for it, but I am betting on selective vision...

HG

[valleytreeman]

Mag man, you are missing the salient point; this gardener is in England...eliminates most of your list...


So VT, you're thinking that Worried just lost some land? That might explain the cryptic nature of this missive... What do you make of the lack of acorns? Sterility? Predation? Wishful thinking?

HG

Well, the thought had crossed my mind. A single and rather hansome specimin in an open field that isn't wanted? Trees were very often used as reference points on early American surveys, and since most of the surveyors (Washington was one in our area) were trained in English land law, it stands to reason that trees were used as witness references in England.

Now the lack of acorns is yet a mystery to me. I am not all that familiar with the silvics of English oak so I'm not ready to render a solid opinion on that one. But erratic nut crops is rather common among the oaks. Often they will not bear in a year following a heavy crop... resting mode so to speak. Also late frosts, summer drought etc. may impact mast crops in any one year. Of course those species in the White oak division of the species take two years for acorns to mature, so there will always be at least one off year for any individual tree in this division.

On hybridizing of oak species. I have been a practicing forester for 30 years and have seen very little evidnece that natural hybridizing occurs much in the wild. The vast majority of oaks out there are pretty much true to form to species with some variation in leaf shape. But for the most part a practiced eye can pretty quickly identify a species. I won't say it doesn't happen occasionally and I have seen a few specimens over the years that I would suspect of being hybrids. Juvenile leaves of oak seedlings do vary widely in shape and size with in a species and often on the same seedling. though. I would not use juvenile leaf shape as an identification or hybridization criteria.

[hendi_alex]

WRT hybridization you are probably correct. Seems I read something related to hybridization of oaks a long time ago. Can't remember whether the assertion was "common" or simply "able" to hybridize. But that bit of info combined with anecdotal evidence of watching the apparent variability in leaf structure of hundreds of oak seedlings in this yard, reinforced the notion that oak must cross very readily. I have one white oak which is my favorite tree on the property. Seedlings are forever cropping up under and around that large tree. Anyway, I decided to save a seedling in order to transplant another of those nice trees in the yard area. It took me about three years before one came up that had a leaf structure that was very similar at all to the parent oak. The area is dominated by water oaks, and my assumption has always been that the leaves of the white oak seedlings were intermediate in shape because of crossing with the water oaks.

After your reply, did a quick google and found one study that suggests crossing is no more than about six percent. Perhaps that that would be a little higher where one tree is surrounded by hundreds of another species, but still would not likely give results from my casual observation. What I noticed was more likely, as you pointed out, simple variability shown in the leaves of immature seedlings. Out of curiousity, I'll likely continue to monitor those seedlings, perhaps even letting a few grow additional seasons, just to see how the form changes with age.

Thanks for pointing out my misconception.

[The Helpful Gardener]

As oaks tend to be mother tree/children types, the pollination tends to be truer than some other species, but when I am trying to figure out the difference between Q. coccinea and Q. palustris, or Q. rubra and Q. velutina, I do think of intergenetic breeding and botanists trying to find something to name after themselves with a bit of scepticism. But in England there are fewer trees in general and not too many species to mess around...

This note on the European commissions tree findings was kind of sad...

[url]https://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Quercus+species[/url]

HG