The above acorns are the nut of a white oak tree. With much work, specifically boiling them to extract the bitter tannins, they are said to be edible to humans. Jay birds, squirrels and small ground mammals love them; they have a high ratio of nut meat to shell, from the animals' perspective. It is said that a deer's diet may consist of up to 25% acorns certain times of the year.
With the persistent rains and winds in Greensboro, acorns and leaves have been dropping everywhere. The sound is especially dramatic on the tin roof of an outbuilding. When you hear them dropping in rapid succession, you know that fall is on its way. Greensboro hasn't had too much damage from the recent rains in the southeast; however, we have so many mature trees and several have fallen and there have been some power outages. Other than that, our roads seem much safer than those in South Carolina. We have been fortunate.
The above leaves don't look especially healthy, but the acorns do. Anybody local need some to feed deer?
Glad to hear your area didn't get hit too hard with this rain and flooding.
I love the way Acorns look!
We have Live Oaks, native to California here but their leaves are much smaller and more like a holly leaf while their acorns are long and narrow not fat and shiny like the White Oak.
When I was in grade school ( a bajillion years ago!) we studied the Native populations who were here long before the Spaniards arrived. To the point, we gathered, cracked, peeled and (with supervision) boiled the acorns from our schoolyard. Yes, they are food but they are not as tasty as those darn Squirrels make them look!
We dyed fabric, handmade paper and thin leather with the boil water.
It was the 60s, obviously!
Posted by: Janis Dority | Monday, October 05, 2015 at 03:19 PM
I've heard acorns dropping on a shed roof- they do make quite a racket!
Posted by: William Kendall | Monday, October 05, 2015 at 04:53 PM
Ah... acorns. Just right for my slingshot. OUCH!
Posted by: birdman | Monday, October 05, 2015 at 05:45 PM
Gorgeous acorns!
Posted by: VP | Wednesday, October 07, 2015 at 07:40 AM