Oak News & Notes The Newsletter of the International Oak Society, Volume 19, No. 2, 2015 For nearly 400 years the McBaine Bur Oak, known simply to locals as “The Big Tree,” stands stately in the middle of the floodplains of the Missouri River south of Columbia, MO. This image was taken at sunset in May of 2010 by Kyle Spradley. See story on page 7 8th Triennial Conference of the like to donate, please contact Ryan Russell at International Oak Society [email protected]. Murphy Westwood of The Morton Arboretum and Sara Program update: Oldfield of the IUCN Global Tree Specialist Group are or- The program has been finalized and the PDF is viewable at ganizing an oak Red Listing workshop for IOS folks on http://www.mortonarb.org/ios2015. There is still time to Sunday the 18th from 10:00am–3:00pm, including a free register, but hurry because time is running out fast. There lunch. The workshop will provide basic training in how to are a few spots left for the Post-Tour, but those are going compile an IUCN Red List threat assessment and review fast as well. assessments so far completed by the Morton for oaks of the Don’t forget this Conference will feature the first silent Americas. Please RSVP to Murphy at auction, with proceeds going to fund student scholarships [email protected] if you would like to attend or to the 2018 IOS Conference. If you have items you would want more information. Oak News & Notes There are other breakout meetings hap- pening that day as well, like an NAPCC Oak Curatorial Group meet- ing from 3:00-4:00pm (contact Greg Paige: [email protected]) and an IUFRO meeting from 4:00-5:00pm (contact Chuck Cannon at: [email protected]). If you would like to attend any of these meet- ings, please plan your travel according- Some acorns were directly planted in the restoration area (December 2013). Photo: Bill Parken ly so you can join. have gone missing from the scrub oak moisture and soil nutrients. In order to habitat. help the seedlings become established, Acorn swap information can be found project leaders have been mixing pot- at http://systematics.mortonarb.org/ Under the leadership of Bill Parken ting soil with mycorrhizal material IOS2015/ Be sure to make plans to and Nicole Ranalli of FWC, volunteers gathered from under the leaf litter be- collect from your favorite trees and are involved in the three tasks required low mature scrub oaks. share with your IOS friends at the most for the project: collecting acorns in popular Conference event. fall, potting them, and then planting them out in summer. Work began in Conference Committee 2013, when 800 scrub oak sprouts Project Acorn were planted, then in the summer of 2014 volunteers planted 2,400 sprouts, Damaged scrub oak habitat in central and this year the project has 2,500 Florida is being restored—one acorn at sprouts ready for planting. An estimat- a time. Project Acorn, a multiyear ef- ed 700 to 800 people have contributed fort that combines the initiative of the to the project: collecting, storing and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation potting acorns, then maintaining the Commission (FWC), financial backing germinated seedlings, and finally from the Disney Worldwide Conserva- planting the sprouts and watering tion Fund, and the work of local volun- them. Most of the work is being done teers, aims at healing impaired envi- by the volunteer group Ridge Rangers, ronment on the Lake Wales Ridge an organization of volunteers helping Volunteers show acorns gathered at Carter Creek, Wildlife and Environment Area in FL, in September 2013, the project's first year. to restore wildlife habitat on the Lake Photo: Bill Parken Florida by planting the native oaks that Wales Ridge and nearby areas in cen- tral Florida. Oaks have already been planted over 12 acres of damaged scrub habitat, and The scrub oak species involved include the goal is complete restoration over a sand live oak (Q. geminata), Chapman total of 20 acres. The 2015 planting oak (Q. chapmanii) and myrtle oak (Q. campaign took place in July and Au- myrtifolia). The oak trees will benefit gust, and volunteers will be gathering the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphe- acorns during October 2015, in prepa- mus) and the Florida scrub jay ration for next year’s campaign. More (Aphelocoma coerulescens). It is also information about the Project, can be hoped that the fire-resistant oaks will found on the IOS website, in the Arti- crowd out the cat briar vine (Smilax cles section. sp.) and the Natal grass (Melinis re- pens), which are not native to the habi- Roderick Cameron Scrub oak seedlings in the nursery waiting to be tat and compete with the oaks for planted out. Photo: Bill Parken 2 Oak News & Notes Oaks in Australia to grow trees, but we do not by any variabilis in southern Yunnan, at means have ideal growing conditions. Simao, and it is inclined to be semi- My arboretum is in the Western Dis- evergreen. Other specimens here in Our arboretum extends over some 75 trict of Victoria, Australia, at Dunkeld, Australia are fully deciduous with hectares with as many species of tem- which is situated about 250 km west of spectacular autumn foliage, obviously perate trees as I have been able to col- the capital city, Melbourne. Ours is a sourced from much further north. Sim- lect and successfully establish. We Mediterranean climate, with hot dry ilar characteristics are seen with Pyrus have in cultivation 200 species of oak summers and cold wet winters. Rain- pashia, which we collected from the and approximately another 70 hybrids same location, and which is evergreen and cultivars. Of these, 12 are in sub- in cultivation. As well as oaks and genus Cyclobalanus and 12 are spe- pears, we have evergreen species of cies of Lithocarpus. We have planted 2 Alnus, Fraxinus (several species) and or 3 trees of each species for future Ulmus. pollination and different accessions of the same species have been planted for In 2009, I attended the IOS Oak Con- the morphological variation shown. ference at Puebla, Mexico and enjoyed it very much, meeting many very inter- Most of my collecting has been esting members of the oak fraternity. through the mail, but I did travel to the Yunnan province of China in 1989, and spent six weeks collecting with Quercus alnifolia five other people, as guests of the Kun- fall is around 650 mm per annum, ming Botanical Institute. We visited mostly in the winter, but if we get a areas closed to foreigners at that time. good summer, we may receive up to 25 Quercus pannosa with its golden to- mm per month. Temperatures range mentum backed leaves was a very from several days over 40 °C in the beautiful tree and common enough in summer down to -1 or -2 °C morning northern Yunnan. But north of Lijiang, frosts in the winter. Our soil is of vol- we walked 12 km into a magnificent canic origin, classified as a sandy loam river canyon called Gan-He-Ba, with over clay. It is not rich and requires towering mountains each side, while it superphosphate applications for agri- rained solid all day. There we found Quercus delavayi, grown from acorns collected in cultural production. The top soil is on- many Q. pannosa with tan/brown Yunan, China, in 1989. ly about 45 cm deep. Our mild climate backed leaves, a different color to the On the Pre- and Post-Conference and mostly reliable rainfall allows us commonly-seen gold ones. Does any- one know of this difference? The Tours, looking at the oaks in their nat- acorns of this species were germinat- ural environment, at Taxco, in the state ing while still on the tree, making it a of Guerrero, it was common to see Q. real challenge for the collector, but I urbanii with its rich red velvety new did manage to successfully cultivate leaves, but on some of the trees the one tree of each type. Other nice speci- velvet was golden. Between Zacapoax- mens from that trip are Q. franchetii tla and Cuetzalan we saw the dwarf and Q. griffithii. Also Castanopsis species, Q. repanda. Much to every- delavayi and Q. delavayi, planted one’s dismay, not one acorn was to be nearby. It was interesting to note how found. But looking intently I spotted a trees of the same species, but from cupule on one bush: “Where there is a warmer locations, varied relative to cupule, there must be an acorn!” So those of cooler origin. We collected Q. searching the ground underneath I was Quercus grisea lucky enough to find an old acorn, the 3 Oak News & Notes ba, Q. pyrenaica (collected from the Truffle-oaks in Argentina most southerly location for that spe- cies) and Q. vulcanica. Where were most oaks planted in Ar- gentina during the last three years? Up until 2000, my collection was One might guess that it would be in keeping up with the rest of the world, one of the collections of the few quix- but about that time the Australian otic quercophiles in that country, or Quarantine and Inspection Service perhaps a landscape designer with a brought in harsh regulations on the preference for Quercus, or a particular- importation of seeds. Nowadays my ly zealous specialist nursery were re- collecting has largely ceased, but on the positive side, I am lucky to have Quercus coccifera. the collection growing, and that I can enjoy. You have the editors of ON&N shell was starting to deteriorate, but it to thank for this article as I am more appeared to be viable.