Posted on 12/14/2008 10:54:49 PM PST by neverdem
(CNN) -- Up and down the East Coast, residents and naturalists alike have been scratching their heads this autumn over a simple question: Where are all the acorns?
Oak trees have shed their leaves, but the usual carpet of acorns is not crunching underfoot.
In far-flung pockets of northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other states, scientists have found no acorns whatsoever.
"I can't think of any other year like this," said Alonso Abugattas, director of the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington, Virginia.
Louise Garris, who lives in the Oakcrest neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, first noticed the mysterious phenomenon early this fall when doing yardwork beneath a canopy of large oak trees.
"I have lived in the area my entire life and have never not seen any acorns!" she said. Garris checked with some local plant nurseries and they confirmed her observation.
The mystery has found its way to the Internet, where a "No acorns this year" discussion on Topix.com yielded more than 180 comments from people reporting acorn disappearances as far away as Connecticut and North Carolina.
"WHAT IS GOING ON?" posted a resident of Maplewood, New Jersey. "Now we are finding dead squirrels! SHOULD WE ALL BE CONCERNED?"
Not necessarily, naturalists say. Last year Garris reported a bumper crop of acorns, which scientists say may be one clue to this year's scarcity. Virginia extension agent Adam Downing...
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Pretty sparse here on the Texas coast as well. Although I do have a bumper crop of Satsumas..
I thought acorns were toxic to humans
If you leech out the tannins, they are edible.
It’s the tannic acids that make them bitter and probably not terribly healthy.
Same here, branches are about to break.
It’s obvious, isn’t it?
The missing acorns were carried into an alternative reality by the missing hyperdimensional honeybees.
(Art Bell and Richard C. Hoagland told me so!)
We just gotta keep it up until they're all dead, the stinkin' little house eaters.
Its not the obvious that has me worried.
Geez! We have had the largest crop of acorns I have ever seen. The ground around all the oaks in my yard is literally covered. Same with the deep woods in this area.
The Pecan orchards did not do so well, but it is cyclical with them. Had a great year last year. On/Off production is normal. I bet it is with acorns also. Just depends on location, and cycle.
They are very nutritious but the high tannin content makes them unpalatable as-is, though some "sweet" varieties aren't too bad, or need only light processing.
Many American indian tribes subsisted on acorn meal made by leaching out the tannin, much as you have to remove the nasty toxic stuff from pokeweed by heating it up in water, rinsing it and doing it again. After removing the tannin the acorns meats lose their bitterness and are dried and ground fine.
You might want to look that up- by the time the government nationalizes everything and the socialists have had their way, we all might need to eat that stuff in some squirrel stew, too.
The tannin from oak acorns and bark was used to tan leather by settlers.
Acorns are very useful. If you cut a big burr oak acorn just right it makes a nifty shot glass for moonshine. Put eight of those cups together and a squirrel could wear them as a bra. Use some pvc pipe and an air compressor to fashion a giant acorn shooter and you have a "green" assault weapon... or go the low tech approach and just use them in a slingshot to keep dogs and liberals out of the garden.
Maybe, but it is twenty below here tonight with -50 windchill, and I haven't seen an acorn all year.
(Maybe I should move some place that has oak trees...) (8^D)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f5d_1172741350
I’ve got more acorns this year than I ever have, and I have two less oak trees to boot. It got so bad in the late summer and early fall that we couldn’t use our sun-room; the acorns were falling so hard and fast that sometimes it sounded like someone was on the roof with a jackhammer. One good thing about it is that it has brought the deer and turkey in closer. I didn’t even have to leave the yard to fill my freezer.
Very sorry to hear about your cat, how sad.
The only good squirrel is a stewed squirrel.
Guarantee they didn’t look in Detroit, Chicago, or Cleveland. They’re filled to the brim.
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