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The acorn is the oak's seed, held in a scaly cup that protects it as it grows. Acorns ripen in autumn, green at first and turning brown as they mature. Oaks crop unevenly, producing huge numbers in some years, known as mast years, and very few in others.
Acorns feed a wide range of wildlife, including jays, wood pigeons, squirrels, mice and deer. Jays are the oak's most important planters: in autumn, a single jay can bury thousands of acorns to eat later, and the ones it forgets can grow into new trees, often far from the parent oak. Once grown, oaks support more wildlife than any other British tree, with over 2,300 species associated with them.
Acorns have long been used by people too. Pigs were turned out into woodland each autumn to fatten on them, a right known as pannage, and in times of shortage roasted acorns were ground as a substitute for coffee.
Oaks grew in this region long before the mines, and older trees survived in hedgerows and woods through the years of industry. Jays now carry their acorns onto former colliery land, where oaks are also planted in new woodland. Growth is slow: an oak usually produces its first acorns only at around 40 years old. Each acorn that takes root here is the start of woodland for generations to come.
The acorn is the oak's seed, held in a scaly cup that protects it as it grows. Acorns ripen in autumn, green at first and turning brown as they mature. Oaks crop unevenly, producing huge numbers in some years, known as mast years, and very few in others.
Acorns feed a wide range of wildlife, including jays, wood pigeons, squirrels, mice and deer. Jays are the oak's most important planters: in autumn, a single jay can bury thousands of acorns to eat later, and the ones it forgets can grow into new trees, often far from the parent oak. Once grown, oaks support more wildlife than any other British tree, with over 2,300 species associated with them.
Acorns have long been used by people too. Pigs were turned out into woodland each autumn to fatten on them, a right known as pannage, and in times of shortage roasted acorns were ground as a substitute for coffee.
Oaks grew in this region long before the mines, and older trees survived in hedgerows and woods through the years of industry. Jays now carry their acorns onto former colliery land, where oaks are also planted in new woodland. Growth is slow: an oak usually produces its first acorns only at around 40 years old. Each acorn that takes root here is the start of woodland for generations to come.