Nuts

The last couple of weeks have brought a deluge of acorns at the Boggy Thicket.  We have several varieties of oak trees in our yard, and they all seem to be competing to see who can drop the most nuts.It almost seems to be dangerous to stand around outside. 

The Live Oaks have little tiny acorns, about the size of the end of your little finger, and getting hit by one of those is only annoying.  The White Oaks, on the other hand, have acorns the size of a Tonka truck.  When they land in  the pool, it sounds like a big fish just jumped, and we have actually heard them hit the roof of the house when we were inside watching TV.  Getting hit by one of those suckers could actually do some damage.

Local news reports say this year’s acorn crop is about ten times normal.

Tree experts say they don't entirely understand why, every decade or two, oak trees produce a surfeit of acorns - known as a "mast" year, but scientists believe this year's deluge of acorns may be related to last year's drought.

"I've been here 15 years, and I don't remember seeing live oaks producing like this before," said Evan Siemann, an ecologist and tree researcher at Rice University.

"We often see increased production in mast when we are experiencing drought, especially like the one we had last year," said Matthew Weaver, a regional urban forester with the Texas A&M Forest Service. "The trees are trying to perpetuate their species so they expend energy in producing their seed."

In other words, last year's drought may have provided a cue to oak trees to be fruitful and multiply.