From tiny acorns....

In our front garden we have an oak tree. This is not your normal suburban tree for a normal sized Adelaide garden! However the tree came along with the house and we estimate it to be almost 30 years old.

I intended to do a nice blip in the Brownhill Creek reserve today but on getting to my preferred location, found it was starting to rain quite heavily. So that was that. On getting back home it was easy to dodge the showers and get this blip of something we take for granted each year, the formation of baby acorns. Seen even better in LARGE.

The oak tree belongs in the genus Quercus - Latin "oak tree", of which about 600 species exist. The genus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical areas. It does extremely well in this part of South Australia.

The acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule, with each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three), and takes 6-18 months to mature. Then we have to pick them up off the ground or they will self-seed!