It’s raining acorns!

If you’re into oak trees, you know what a mast year is. It’s a year in which an oak tree produces an extraordinary number of acorns. It’s usually followed by a few years when it produces few to no acorns. There are several theories about why oak trees do this, and I’m sure oak trees have their perfectly good reasons.

I don’t know if coast live oaks have mast years, but if they do, we’re in one. It’s raining acorns in my backyard. Acorns fall on my roof at night. They fall on my head when I’m sitting outside and bounce off the table I’m sitting at. They hit the metal roof of my meditation room with the percussive effect of a gunshot, and collect in piles on the ground beneath.

While these mini-explosions have yet to startle me into instant enlightenment, they do make me smile. Outside my window scrub jays dart past with acorns in their beaks, looking for a place to stash them. Squirrels patrol the branches in search of their favorite food. Towhees emerge from my brush pile to collect acorns and give the world a verbal piece of their mind.

I have no doubt that many of the small oak seedlings in my backyard were planted by birds and squirrels, who are notoriously forgetful about where they buried their food stash. And this environmental service is important. Because if there are no other oak trees around, the ones that exist have no way of being pollinated. The wind will only carry the pollen so far. Oak tree numbers in America are declining, partly because of our passion with neat, acorn free gardens.

Also, the oak trees that grow from buried acorns have a much better start in life than the ones you can buy at the nursery in pots. These potted oak trees will never develop the extensive root system that’s so important to the tree’s health. I have several mature oak trees and dozens of younger ones on my suburban property. None were planted by my hand. 

Oak trees host hundreds of insects that are crucial in spring when birds need protein to feed their nestlings. They are host to beautiful butterflies, such as the California sister, California hairstreak, and mournful duskywing. Their fallen leaves form a long-lasting mulch that harbors microorganisms that are essential to the tree’s health. The leaves also remind us that it’s best not to have too much foot traffic under the  tree. If you have an oak tree, please don’t remove the fallen leaves! Above all, don’t plant a new lawn under your oak tree. 

I credit Douglas Tallamy’s writing about oaks, especially his book, The Nature of Oaks, with teaching me about the wonders of oaks. That along with my own observations about the oaks in my yard. 

Do you have oak trees? Do you by any chance need some acorns? Tell us.