The majestic life cycle of a beautiful oak tree

Oak trees are amongst some of the most beautiful trees around and they can survive for hundreds of years. There are many famous tales surrounding these trees including a young prince who hid in an oak tree away from the troops of an opposing army and the myth and legend that is Robin Hood having lived with his merry men underneath the branches of s strong oak in Sherwood Forest. The wood of an oak tree has been used for many different reasons throughout the years such as ship building, in construction works such as houses and Bespoke Oak Carport like you can see at bespoaktimberframes.co.uk/ and in many other items as well.

The lifecycle of any given tree, including oaks follows a similar pattern with the flowers of the plant being germinated, seeds produced and dispersed and then growth.

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Oak tree flowers are not always obvious to the average gardener and many people walk past a flowering oak blissfully unaware that it is showing o ff its flowers for all to see. There are a number of ways that flowers are pollinated both for trees and other plants. The two main natural ways are pollenated by insect and pollenated by wind. Pollenated by insect simply means that a creature of some description whether it is a bee, or a caterpillar or other small insect picks up the pollen from the plant on its body somewhere when it visits the plant to feed of its nectar. When the insect then travels to another plant some of the pollen rubs off and if it lands on a female flower it will then be pollenated. With wind pollination (this is what occurs in oaks) the pollen is dispersed thought the air and carried to other nearby oaks.

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Once pollination has occurred the fruit of the plant, in the case of an oak this is acorns, begins to grow.  The fruit of many plants are also the seeds. These fruits then fall from the tree or are carried by birds and other animals like squirrels where some will be left in the ground and will then germinate. This involves the acorn producing what is known as a taproot and sending this down into the soil to anchor itself into position. It will then then produce a shoot o emerge from the soil and will begin its life as a seedling. Once at this position the tree is susceptible to both issues from the environment and also animals that feed on these nutrient rich seedlings and slightly larger saplings. Deer in particular like to eat these trees. Those saplings that survive will then go on to mature into fully grown adult oak trees.

Author: Kei Taylor

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