Oak ID

After accomplishing the next phase of NC state government citizen making regulation, the auto safety check, which required a trip to the auto parts store for a fuse so their computer could analyze my truck, I went on my late afternoon stroll through the forest to see what I would see. There is something new all the time.

(Still not there yet, fall wise.)















I stopped to get a closer look at the acorns that have been rat-tat-tating on their way to the forest floor because Chuck B wanted to know if my acorns were wormy or if they were still good.

Well I had to look.

They look scrumptious.

And then I took a closer look at the Oak trees themselves.















Oh Nuts!

These acorns were not coming from what I thought was a White Oak, Quercus alba. They were falling from some other kind of Oak with distinctly different leaves than the ones in "The View" in front of the house. There is more than one type of Oak in this forest.

So I did a mini survey and found three distinctly different Oak species in a small one acre upper portion of this property.
















Thanks to the Woodscaping course I took I had a handy Common Forest Trees of North Carolina guide to try and determine what Oaks I do have. I don't think I have White Oaks anymore. The White Oak has rounded edges on the leaf lobe margins and mine were pointed and toothed.

I now think I have Red Oak, Quercus rubra, the four single leaves at the bottom.

Black Oak, Quercus veluntina, center left leaves and

Chestnut Oak, Quercus prinus, the top right leaves and the source of most of the acorns I collected, though there was a Red Oak in falling distance so this could be a mixed lot of nuts.

I also recall reading during the Woodscaping course that the Oaks as a group do sex each other on a regular basis and it is not uncommon to find natural hybrids. The Black Oak is said in the guide to have highly variable leaves and those center left leaves while less lobed than the quide shows are closest to the Black Oak. To be more certain that I have the correct ID I will need to get a closer look at its particular acorns because cup size and coverage of the nut can be a determining factor in species identification.

I still have much to learn.