But that does not stop oaks from having a few tricks up their sleeves when it comes to staying alive and warding off predators. Oaks use multiple strategies to ward off predators, but here a few interesting ones:. White Oak Quercus alba. Post Oak Quercus stellata. Bur Oak Quercus macrocarpa. Swamp White Oak Quercus bicolor. Chinkapin Oak Quercus muehlenbergii. Swamp Chestnut Oak Quercus michauxii. Overcup Oak Quercus lyrata. Dwarf Chestnut Oak Quercus prinoides.
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra. Shumard Oak Quercus shumardii. Black Oak Quercus velutina. Blackjack Oak Quercus marilandica. Pin Oak Quercus palustris. Northern Pin Oak Quercus ellipsoidalis. Southern Red Oak Quercus falcata. Cherrybark Oak Quercus falcata var. Nuttall Oak Quercus texana. Entire Red Oaks:. Shingle Oak Quercus imbricaria. Willow Oak Quercus phellos. Water Oak Quercus nigra [12]. Warnell School of Forestry, Dec. Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri, Your email address will not be published.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Washington University in St. Introduction Oaks are unique in many ways, but most strikingly is how well oaks represent the classic stereotype of a tree. Oak Tree And Sun.
Identification Leaves When identifying oaks, it is important to determine which family the oak belongs in first.
Bark Come end of fall and winter, oaks will drop their leaves. Entire unlobed Red Oaks Weirdest of all, are the oaks whose leaves are entire, meaning their leaves have none of the lobes so characteristic of the oak tree. Reproduction While there are many aesthetic differences when it comes to oaks, what remains the same for all species is their method of reproduction. Oaks Natural Defenses Since oaks are trees, they are unable to react to predation and environmental changes as easily as an animal might.
Oaks use multiple strategies to ward off predators, but here a few interesting ones: Tannic Acid. Oaks contain a lot of a substance called tannic acid.
This acid, present in oak leaves and wood, make oak leaves incredibly undesirable to predators. The tannins cause the leaves to be quite bitter and can be toxic in large amounts. Herbivores such as horses and deer will only eat oak leaves in desperate times [9]. Additionally, most animals who feed on the tree will seldom cause the death of an oak. Although the damage may be visible and disconcerting, it almost always is not a big deal to the overall health of the tree [10] Selective Acorn Production masting.
Oaks are one of the few species of plants that exhibit a behavior known as masting. Masting is when oaks will produce an abundance of acorns one year, while cutting back on acorn production significantly while in between these mast years. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don't all go to the Poles, where it is cooler.
Do oak trees need pollination? Oaks are wind-pollinated trees with male and female flowers on the same tree. But in spite of this fact they set fruit usually only when another individual of the same species exists in the vicinity and can serve as a pollen donor. Do trees use energy? Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars.
The sugars produced by photosynthesis can be stored, transported throughout the tree, and converted into energy which is used to power all cellular processes. What trees reproduce asexually? There are 2 types of trees: gymnosperms any woody plant that doesn't have a flower and angiosperms any flowering plant. Trees can reproduce asexually by budding their cells are totipotent, and so one "cut" of a tree can grow into a whole organism.
Pine trees have both male cones and female cones. Are oak trees Monoecious? Oaks and many other trees are monoecious. Potentially, every tree of reproductive age is capable of producing acorns, and the majority of female flowers are pollinated by the male flowers of other oak trees within the same area.
In contrast, other trees, such as persimmon and white ash, are dioecious. How long do live oaks drop pollen? How does an oak tree grow from an acorn? If left unmolested, the seedling will gradually grow and develop into a sapling tree after four to five years. The sapling then grows into a small tree that flowers and produces its own acorns. The female flowers grow where the leaf stalks meet the branches or twigs.
Fertilised flowers grow into acorns that sit in hard cups called peduncles. By autumn the acorns have ripened and, before the leaves of the tree are shed, they fall to the ground.
However some types of oak trees produce acorns at a different rate than others. White oaks, for example, need only one growing season from the time of pollination to the acorn ripening. In contrast, red oaks need two growing seasons. Once the acorns fall to the ground, the subsequent shedding of the tree's leaves acts as a deterrent to acorn-eating animals and birds by covering and hiding the acorns on the forest floor.
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