How does an oak blossom?

The fact that oak, like other plants, is capable of blooming, many people do not even suspect. And it is not surprising, because its flowers are green and are often simply invisible among the foliage. How the oak still blooms will be discussed in the article.

Oak is a long-lived tree, it has a powerful trunk and a huge crown. It can grow up to 40 m. The plant belongs to the beech family. It has many species - there are more than 600 of them, about 20 of them are found in the Russian Federation. The most familiar and dear to us species is the pedunculate oak, which is also common.

In the western regions of Russia, as well as on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea, there is a rock oak, which is very common in European countries. These tree varieties are the basis of Russian groves.

On the territory of the Far East, in the Amur region, you can meet the Mongolian species of oak, the Latin name is Quercus mongolica Fisch. ex Ledeb, in the forests of Transbaikalia there is even a relict grove of this variety. Slightly less common in these parts is a jagged oak.

As for other species, the cork oak is of great economic importance, which is found in many places - this is the south of France, Spain, Algeria, as well as the Caucasus, namely its Black Sea coast. In the Mediterranean countries, especially in Italy, an evergreen plant grows - a stone oak, in Latin Quercus ilex.

Its sweet acorns are even eaten. The same nutritious fruits are found in oak trees in the East, in warm American states such as California. For example, they were widely used for food by the Indians in America. But it's mostly good livestock feed. Acorn coffee is made from the acorns brought by the oaks growing in our country.

The average life span of an oak is 400 years, but there are trees of a more venerable age - 700 years and older.

If the oak is spacious and free, if it grows in free space, its first flowers appear when it reaches 20-25 years. But if he has to grow among other trees, you can expect flowering 2 times longer. Over time, oaks begin to produce more flowers, respectively, and more acorns are obtained as a result.

Therefore, it is so interesting to find out how the oak still blooms, because everyone knows about acorns, but few have seen flowers. Nevertheless, they exist and are even quite complex. Like many other cultures, oak flowers are dioecious, monoecious: that is, both male and female flowers bloom on the same tree.

Pollination of flowers can occur both with the help of insects and with the help of the wind. At the end of the flowering of the oak, an acorn fruit is formed in each ovary. The final ripening of the fruits occurs in autumn. Stamen (male) flowers are collected in inflorescences, represent a yellow-green shade of catkins (their shade almost completely coincides with the color of young leaves), they hang from branches in whole bunches.

Female pistillate flowers are also green, they gather 2-3 flowers on special short stems, while they have a small red top, which is a small antennae that traps pollen.

At the same time, they are hidden at their base and even look like kidneys, which is why they are so difficult to notice. But it is they who will turn into the well-known acorns in the future. A large number of scale-like leaves grow in the lower part of the female flowers. They are located on a special roller, which is a developed receptacle. During the ripening of the fruit, this roller grows, forming a plyus - a characteristic saucer in which the acorn is located.

Oak varieties also have different sizes of acorn fruits. And also the shape of the scales is extremely rich: in some species the scales are small, in others, for example, in the Hungarian oak, the scales are centimeter long and turned away. The oak is characterized by a three-celled ovary of flowers, but during the period of fruit ripening, only one nest will grow, the result is a single-seeded fruit with a strong leathery pericarp, which botanists classify as a nut-like fruit.

Like many other fruit bearing plants, oak also blooms in spring. In our country, its central part, this period falls around the days of May. At the same time, the beginning of flowering is directly related to the variety of the plant. Different species have different flowering dates. English oak is of two types - summer and winter. The first species begins to bloom more often in the 1st half of May, blooms profusely, produces many acorn fruits.

Most often, such oaks are the owners of even trunks. The second, winter species begins to bloom 2 weeks later. He will have fewer flowers and fruits. Oak leaves are just blooming, they are small, painted yellowish-green. Earrings appear along with them, they hang in bunches from the branches.

And they absolutely do not stand out against the background of foliage. But the fact that the leaves at this time are very small makes the process of pollination much easier. Of course, oak blooms mainly in May, but it can bloom even in the summer month - June. The tree is primarily guided by the weather, the plant itself can determine whether frosts are expected or not.

The blooming of oak leaves from the buds takes place for a whole month. This process begins in early May and continues until early June. Here, too, much depends on weather conditions, for example, what was the weather in April: for example, the cold shifts the time of blooming of oak leaves to the end of May.

Flowers on oak trees appear simultaneously with leaves, in late spring. But unlike the leaves, which gradually bloom over the course of a month, the duration of the flowering itself is no more than 10 days. After blooming on the stamens of the flowers of the male group, pollen ripens, it remains active for a short time - 4-5 days. When the weather is favorable for pollination, that is, if it is windy, and there is enough sun, the ripe pollen quickly crumbles, and streams of wind or insects transfer it to the pistils, thereby fertilizing the female flowers.

And in the fall, these flowers will turn into characteristic acorn fruits, which subsequently fall to the ground.

The breeding process of an oak takes a lot of strength and a lot of energy. It is for this reason that these trees do not bear fruit every year, it happens every 5-8 years.

For development and flowering, it is necessary that there is a slight cooling in the spring. In principle, the oak is afraid of cold weather, and in this regard, its sap flow begins later than in other cultures. But in order to preserve the integrity of the inflorescences, a slight cooling is needed. There is such a popular sign: if an oak has bloomed, it means that soon there will be so-called oak cold.They are short-lived, about a week, but they are the last cold days before the warm long-awaited summer.