White oak acorns

I went for a short nature hike on Sunday, Jan. 7, hoping to find something interesting to photograph. After about 30 minutes of searching for something interesting, I sat down under a large white oak tree and enjoyed the scenery.

As I was getting up to leave the tree, something red on the ground caught my eye. It was the root sprout of a white oak acorn. I carefully brushed back some leaves and found more acorns. Three of them were close together and gave me a descriptive photo opportunity.

Healthy white oak acorns normally drop from the tree in late September or October. Squirrels and birds pick and eat large numbers of acorns before they fall. Acorns that land on the ground are soon covered by fallen leaves. But wild turkeys and deer scratch the leaves away to find and eat acorns, too. Although white oak acorns will sprout soon after they drop in autumn and although a big tree can produce several thousand acorns, few ever grow into mature trees.