CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY TREE STUDY KIT
BLACK OAK
Background for parent/teacher:
- Black oaks are deciduous. They are the only deciduous oaks with pointy leaves.
- Acorns were an important staple in the Miwok diet.
- Many native animals rely on acorns. Approximately 170 species of birds use oaks as some point in their life cycle.
A scrub jay may cache 5000 acorns in a season! 58 species of lizards, snakes and amphibians are associated
with oak habitats. 105 mammals use the oak resource. For example, 35% of the fall diet of deer is acorns.
5000 species of insects use oaks and 1000 are dependent on them.
- Fossil records indicate there have been oaks in California for at least ten million years.
- Oaks woodlands are in trouble in California due to development, dams preventing the floods which reduced
the numbers of gophers and other predators of acorns and seedlings, invasion of weeds like French broom
which out-compete oak seedlings, and ranching (A cow can eat 1800 acorns a day, not to mention trampling
on oak seedlings.)
BLACK OAK ACORNS HAVE A CAP THAT GOES DOWN TO THEIR KNEES
- OR EVEN THEIR TOES!
Leaf is 3/4 actual size