Re: Mystery of acorn production

In a message dated 11/9/99 7:59:31 AM Central Standard Time,
David-Edwards@UTC.EDU writes:

<< Incidentally, we have never had as many acorns as we have this year.  An
 old-timer tells me that means a cold winter lies ahead.
  >>

David,
    How strange. Where are you located?  We have almost NO acorns produced
this year, but last year there were so many it was like a mulch on the
ground.  I spent the entire season trying to weed baby oak trees.  We did
have a lot of snow, record amounts last winter in the Central Illinois
region.  It would be interesting to see if this follows true for you this
winter.  So far, we are having a very mild autumn/winter, with record high
temps in our area.  I feel positive the production of seed means something,
but how do the plants figure it out.  It also followed that same pattern with
my hostas this year as far as seed production.  It was a terrible season
hybridizing hostas for me and trying to set seed on them.  Last year,
however, every hosta cross I made set seed and I had so many seedlings I
didn't know what to do with them.

Now having read Bill's post below, I feel like an "old-timer."  Yes, you make
some true and valid points.  My only argument would be,  I don't like to
assume that we already know all about nature through scientific knowledge,
natural selection and other "laws" of nature.  There must be unknown factors
that affect nature that we don't understand yet.  I mean, that is at least a
possibility, right?

Tried recently to argue with a neighbor about this--my point was that we have
lots of acorns because conditions were good in the spring for the
fertilization of oak flowers, and we got just enough rain to bring the
resulting fruit along.  No, he wasn't having any.  Somehow he felt it was
in the oak trees' interest to produce a lot of acorns in advance of a cold
winter.  Then I tried a little natural selection on him to see if he could
tell me why the oaks should sacrifice their potential offspring (acorns) to
feed the squirrels through a "cold winter."

Kay Dye, Edelstein, IL Zone 5
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