Friday, December 5, 2008

Quercus acutissimia...A good sunrise can even make a non-native tree look great!:

Here's another non-natie that is somewhat out of synch with the seasons. Everybody else, even most of the oaks, have lpst their leaves for the winter and here's the Sawtooth Oak trailing along happily.

This is an oak that seems to be relatively unaffected by the complex of issues that result in Oak decline, and have distressed and killed so many of our native oaks It has abundant large acorns (not this year!) that resulted in its being widely planted in a number of eastern states for wildlife. It turns out that the high tannin acorns are so bitter that they are only eaten by birds, but I guess that's good for turkeys. It is maybe not so good for the natural areas that now have another Asian competitor with a competitive advantage?

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