Spring Sex

This is just a quick little blog about a fascinating topic

 I always wondered about but never really 

made the effort to understand. 

Sex and the Oak Tree.

When I went outside yesterday,  I noticed

 a lot of gold "pollen" tassels hanging from 

my oak trees.  I know this is where all of that

disgusting yellow pollen dust comes from

every spring.  It covers the whole world for a few weeks

and makes many of us sneeze.

But what is it's purpose? 

I googled it and this is what I found.

They are called "catkins" (from the Dutch for kitten tail).

They are actually the male sex apparatus of the oak tree.

The female sex apparatus are small inconspicuous

flowers mainly found toward the top of the tree.

The catkins release their pollen over a 4 day period each spring.

The spent catkins then fall to the ground.

The yellow pollen released into the air gets blown 

to the female flowers to fertilize them.

The babies are the much dreaded acorns which

carpet our lawns in the fall, embedding themselves

in the soil and sprouting the following spring

in an attempt to produce more oak trees.

Heavy spring rains may affect the release of the pollen 

and its ability to pollinate the female flower,

which in turn affects the acorn crop in the fall.

(We can only hope)

Also,  acorns on the White Oak mature in 1 season,

while it takes 2 seasons for acorns to mature 

on the Red Oak.

That's all for now!

Have a great day!