Last year I did the Following a Tree posts when I took photos of how the oak trees up the lane changed each month.
From January 2024
Through the height of summer
and to November 2024.
On the February 2024 post I wrote a bit about the natural history of oaks and this year the huge quantity of acorns made me want to write about them too but then I kept finding more about oaks so thought I'd do an extended oak post...............which sounds like something used for a garden fence!
Oak trees are one of 500 trees of the Quercus family. The largest and longest-lived of Britain's native trees.
The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degree;
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays
Supreme in state, and in three more decays.
John Dryden
In the past oaks were often used to mark the boundaries of English parishes and local dignitaries and villagers would "Beat the Bounds" and walk the boundaries once a year reciting passages from the gospels.
In plant lore the oak is a symbol of courage, independence, faith, longevity, fire, stability, honour and reward. The tree was sacred to the sky and thunder gods, particularly Jupiter, the supreme deity of Roman mythology and was known as Jove's tree and could not be struck by lightening in a storm.
Oaks are one of the last trees to lose their leaves. (Walnuts and Horse Chestnuts are usually the first)
If on the trees the leaves still hold
The coming winter will be cold.
The oak is a symbol of England and was on the badge of the Stuarts. A sprig of oak leaves was worn in button holes and caps on 29th May to commemorate the birthday of Charles II who hid in an oak after the battle of Worcester in 1651.
The oak had all sorts of uses in medicine. Culpepper said the bark, leaves and powdered acorn cups 'bind and dry very much'. The inner bark and the thin skin covering covering the acorn was advised for those spitting blood, while the bark and powdered acorn was said to be an antidote to poisonous herbs and medicine.
Oak galls, formed by the larvae of the gall wasp were used to make ink and dye. Up to the C18 large households would have made their own ink. A recipe from the 11th century, quoted by Dorothy Hartley in her book "Made in England" says "12lbs of oak galls pounded, 5lb of gum(gum arabic) pounded, 5lb or less of green sulphate of iron, 12 gallons of rainwater boiled each day till sufficiently done, letting it settle over night".
More than you ever wanted to know about Oak trees!
Acorns Tomorrow
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