Golden September mornings and Burr Oaks go together like fine cheese and dry wine. Both the tree and the time of year are best viewed through the crisp light of a new risen sun. Although your free background music will be supplied by a chorus of crickets, your mind should summon up something more stately or complex- like a Bach piece- in order to complete the September scene.
I ventured under the cover of one of these stately trees and found my thoughts taking the form of a pseudo Shakespearean soliloquy. I have no idea why, since I wasnt wearing tights. Now here is an Oak, I pondered. Witness how it patiently supports its leafy exuberance with knurled frame and holds silent a deep wisdom wrought of the ages. One by one she yields her mossycup seeds of wisdom to the wiles of the wind and scurrying rodent. Nary a nut will fall from her bosom that she does not mourn. Why Shakespeare and why Bach? Its just a tree for goodness sake. Ah, but what a tree.
Oaks rightly stand as symbols of strength and longevity. The Burr Oak is a champion among its kind. In early life it is among the fastest growing of the oak clan. At the other end of the spectrum it achieves the greatest longevity of the bunch over four centuries. Throughout life these robust upland trees produce the largest of all acorns. Each nut is capped off by a spectacular fringed cap which is responsible for the alternate names of mossycup or overcup oak. Now here is an oak.
Neither J.S. Bach nor the Bard ever caught sight of a Burr Oak in their lifetimes, since it is an exclusive resident of the American Midwest and they remained on the other side of the pond. Bach was a Burr-oak period composer, however .oh, wait a minute, thats Boroque not Burr-oak. Sorry. Well, there are some Burr Oaks still around that began life during Bachs lifetime.
Since Willie S. did know Latin, he would have known what Quercus macrocarpa means. He would have translated it as The oak with the big seeds but could not have said that he knew it well. There is absolutely nothing linking Bill Shakespeare to the tree, thats just a neuron twitch in my own brain. Sorry about that one too.
O.K., lets forget this course of discussion and take a look here to see what Im talking about. Here is a branchlet exhibiting two distinctive Burr Oak traits- big lobes and big acorns. As a member of a group of oaks called the white oaks, the Burr has leaves with rounded lobes. The outer portion of the leaf expands into a broad surface with shallow lobes while the inner portion of the leaf has deeply cut lobes. The acorns, the macrocarpa part, possess the aforementioned fringe caps topping a stout nut of about 1 inch dimension.
Lets ponder that magnificent nut. Burr Oaks begin to produce an annual crop of acorns beginning in their third decade of life. They reach their peak of production between the tender years of 75 and 150 and begin a slow decline in production over the next century or two or three.
Typical of the white oak family, the acorns mature over the course of one season and begin their earthly journey in September.
Larger squirrels like fox and gray squirrels often hasten this descent by cutting the nuts down. Once on the ground they compete with deer, deer mice, and turkeys for the right to eat them. Weevils and all sort of micro life insure that most of the seeds never sprout. In part due to this heavy pressure, oaks tend to vary their acorn production from year to year. They will produce a heavy crop every 2 or 3 years and then follow it with a year of no production. This tactic keeps the acorn eaters off guard and forces them to move around a bit.
Such a long range seed bearing plan seems above the thinking capacity a dumb chunk of wood doesnt it? Maybe those mossycup acorns are seeds of wisdom afterall, but that just cant be. No way. Perhaps I doth protest too much?
Once Upon A Michigan 