Blooming Oaks

Two species of native oak trees are common on the New College campus - live oak (Quercus virginiana) and laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia). Instead of dropping all their leaves in the fall like northern oaks, live oaks and laurel oaks drop all their leaves in the early spring, just as their flowers emerge and just before new leaves appear. This process is beginning now in the last weeks of February and will continue over the next couple of months.

Each tree seems to be on its own time table and have its own shade of green-brown-rust colored catkins. Oak catkins are long thin pendants with multiple inconspicuous male flowers. The male flowers produce pollen which is distributed by the wind. The fine yellow dust on our cars this time of year could be either oak or pine pollen. Following the catkins, bright green new leaves appear. Walking around campus and driving around town during the spring, its easy to see oak trees at all different stages of transition: some still sporting last year's dark green leaves; some covered in rust and golden colored catkins after the old leaves have dropped; and many bursting with the bright green of new leaves.

For more information on laurel oak, including a slide show: http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=3901

For more informatin on live oak, including a slide show http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=3904