End of 2022 Re-viewing Bur Oak, Deer Bookends

 

Earlyish December, I returned to the scene of the bur oak tree that I visited the day before Halloween. I spotted an unusual-looking acorn, even weirder than typical walnut-sized with dreadlock-look cap. The shell was cracked open, but the unit still together.

I took it home and stored it, intending to open it up some time in the near future. Close to Christmas, I returned to the tree to take its pic and look for more acorn specimens.

On the day after I recorded indoor clips of me examining those acorns, I went out for a walk a few hours later. I spotted a buck and decided to record it leisurely chomping on acorns (too small to be bur oak acorns). Recalling that I had a deer clip from the same day as my late November bur oak tree recording, I dabbled with the thought of integrating bur oak and deer into a blog topic.

The late-November bur oak tree was actually an accidental encounter. I had initially spotted and recorded a group of does, at least half dozen. Upon tracking them from left to right, I spotted some bur oak acorns on the ground. (This tree and sample specimens are noticeable in "Bur Oak Trees Spotted and Acorns Piqued" (video, article).

My video contrasts a few of the specimens from the same tree. Does comprise the front bookend to the bur oak acorn re-viewing, and the buck serves as the back bookend. Ruminate over a few sleek ruminants that are rather common in my neck of the woods. As for the bur oak acorn samples, the latest one that I opened up broke up in three sections, but not cleanly. (One specimen that I collected resembles a Star Wars bb-8 astromech droid, Rosetta asteroid or bun do.

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"Bur Oak Acorn, Walnut-sized Nut" (primer bur oak acorn info)
"Bur Oak Trees Spotted and Acorns Piqued"
"End of 2022 Re-viewing Bur Oak, Deer Bookends"

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Bur Oak Trees Spotted and Acorns Piqued

 

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" :

• "How to Identify Oak Trees By Acorns"
• "Bur Oak bark, acorns and foliage"
• "Oak Tree & Acorn Identification for Deer Hunters"
• Abbreviated version of above: "Common Southeastern U.S. Oak Species Identification - And When to Hunt Them!"

Bur Oak Acorn, Walnut-sized Nut

I spotted the curious-looking bur oak acorn just before Halloween. The acorn had a bushy cap, like a short-dreadlocks hairstyle. The acorn itself seemed about the size of a walnut. After I took it home, I found that the cap easily detached. The composite shows the acorn and cap with measuring stick.

I needed help with IDing the acorn; I made a composite picture with measuring stick, the acorn, and some live oak acorns for acorn-size comparisons.

Mama mia! Like imagining a bunch of munchins grouped near Jabba the Hutt!

I posted the comparison image to LinkedIn with a request for ID help. A LinkedIn connection kindly IDed it as a bur oak acorn and provided a link that redirected to Etsy’s “Popular items for burr oak acorns”. What an eyeful!

TexasSmartScape’s “Bur Oak Details” provides a general-interest description suitable for would-be tree owners. The acorn size info confirms largeness—“The acorns can be up to 2 inches in size”. The cap description is “thick mossy”.

"What Is This Thing? Bur oak acorn cap" goes into great detail about the cap. The site shows some pictures of size variations of one tree’s acorns and leaves. (Other comparison pictures show acorns and caps for bur oak against some other oaks.)

gargantuan, monster acorn caps from the bur oak tree (Quercus macrocarpa) … weird because of the shaggy ornamentation encircling the cap. … Caps in the southern portion have long fringe hairs while others at the far north of its range are much smaller and barely have any shag at all. … The shagginess and the size of the cap are the reason for one of the tree's other common names: mossy-cup oak. … The Latin name macrocarpa translates to "large fruit." The acorns of bur oak are the largest of all the native oaks.

"How to Identify Oaks Using Acorns" was helpful in identifying the smallish acorns I collected in the yard. These are shiny, stripey, and sleek, and matched pictures of live oak acorns on the site.

Although I also have Texas red oak trees (Quercus buckleyi)—or trees closely related to them, the site’s pictures of red oaks' acorns more resemble the nuts I’ve seen in spring sproutings. (I’d actually transplanted a few over the years. I kid about squirrels burying such nuts and forgetting about them later.)

“How to Identify Oaks by the Acorns” is another source for identifying oaks by their acorns. The websites’ approaches are different, but helpful with content and images.

Are you ambitious enough to try to process acorns for consumption? “Foraging for Acorns: Identification, Processing + Acorn Recipes” is loaded with how-to information.

November 30, 2022: Four years later, encounter with oak bur trees, leaves, and acorns, not merely a solo acorn. Visit "BurOakTreesSpottedAndAcornsPiqued". Also view the video.

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"Bur Oak Acorn, Walnut-sized Nut" (primer bur oak acorn info)
"Bur Oak Trees Spotted and Acorns Piqued"
"End of 2022 Re-viewing Bur Oak, Deer Bookends