The first time I saw a bur oak acorn (late 2018), I wasn't sure what it was. I wrote "Bur Oak Acorn, Walnut-sized Nut", and included my nutshell description: "The acorn had a bushy cap, like a short-dreadlocks hairstyle. The acorn itself seemed about the size of a walnut."
At that time, I had only a lone acorn sample. This time around, I struck a bonanza of two trees and loads of leaves and acorns
Coincidentally, that acorn find was almost exactly four years ago, also around Halloween. Weirdly, it was the ONLY bur oak I'd ever seen, and didn't think to look for a nearby tree. This time, I spotted some bur oak acorns on the ground (bushy caps and all) during my hunt for Halloween decorations "2022 Halloween Nearby Tour". The acorns' tree was nearby, and laden with more acorns.
After taking some videos of the tree, I took some of the ground samples home. Another day, I returned, staged a few more samples, and took more pix. Ideas for my video and blog article percolated over time. Besides showing and describing the tree and acorns, I wanted to compare the new find with the 2018 acorn I had found and kept.
I discovered that the newer acorn's cap didn't easily detach; I needed to use a screwdriver to pry it off. Side by side, the older acorn was smaller than the bigger one. (I THINK the 2018 acorn hasn't changed much after four years.)
In any case, I became curious to look up more info WRT bur oak trees, acorns, and leaves. "Tree of the Week: Bur Oak" provided loads of info. One most interesting item was at 3:17 mark--"Produce good seed crop every 2 to 3 years". I'd passed by those houses numerous times over years and never spotted anything bur oak till late last month and early this month! Those acorns were a bonanza!
Shortly after running across the October 30 tree, I wanted to examine and record samples I brought home. Also, the acorns piqued me to examine them more closely than I did with the sole acorn from 2018. My video emphasizes one of the October 30 acorns and the one from 2018.
I became curious about the 2018 acorn's innards. I found a slit along its axis and carefully cracked it open with a metal nutcracker. Interesting! It was like shelling a peanut. I removed the whole kernel from one of the shell halves. The kernel had wrapping like peanuts do. The kernel was seamed. I used the nutcracker to gently split the kernel.
I wondered about the newer acorn's innards. That acorn was slightly larger than the older one. It also had a slit along its axis. The shell split open, but the kernel also split into two halves, initially clinging to their respective half shells. The kernel halves didn't look like neat half sections, but cramped multiple sections. Using the nutcracker was ineffective in further separating the sections. However, I didn't apply lots of muscle.
View the video for the following details:
October 30 tree, leaves, acorns
Views of samples handlings
Views of old (2018) and newer (2022) acorns for contrasts
Splitting and opening up of older and newer acorns
November 27 (Site B) tree, leaves, and acorns
More sources with loads of images and info. besides "Tree of the Week: Bur Oak" :
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