Question: I have a few big oak trees, I think Northern Red. They are producing two kinds of acorns, large and …
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Question
I have a few big oak trees, I think Northern Red. They are producing two kinds of acorns, large and small, present in roughly equal numbers, that I need your help identifying. From what I understand, trees in the red oak family take two years to produce acorns. Do they typically drop one-year-old acorns as well, and am I seeing those “half-baked” acorns? On the other hand, the smaller ones also look like pictures of Black Oak acorns, so is it possible that I have a mix of Red and Black Oaks?
Answer
Dear yigalagam, the trees really only produce one kind of acorn. What you are seeing are abortive acorns that were damaged (for some reason) prior to maturation. The tree drops these acorns early, which are usually smaller than the fully mature ones (but may occur in a number of different sizes). If you examine those you have pictured carefully, you will notice the smaller ones that are firmly attached to the involucre (what is commonly called "the cap", but is actually the base of the acorn) are generally empty. While trees in the black oak group (which includes northern red oak) do take two growing seasons to produce fully mature acorns, those that were pollinated this previous spring are still very tiny (much smaller than those you have photographed). I hope this information is helpful.
