Can anyone help me identify this seedling? At first, I thought is was poison ivy but now I don't think so. It's all over my back yard in the grassy area near the house. I've googled but no luck. Anyone?
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June 13, 2008
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Its an oak tree.
Posted by: Daphne Gould | June 13, 2008 at 04:11 PM
Actually, that was one of my first impressions after I realized it probably wasn't poison ivy. But we have no oak trees for a good 100 feet and there must be 50 of them within a 50 foot radius. I thought oaks were hard to germinate too. OTOH, we have had squirrels around for the first time since we moved here 15 years ago and I know they often bury acorns.
How sure are you that it's an oak?
Posted by: Julia | June 13, 2008 at 04:58 PM
I had thousands of those suckers in my yard this spring, and I agree that you have acorns sprouting in you yard. Blame the squirrels.
Posted by: MaryC | June 16, 2008 at 05:48 PM
I agree, it's an oak seedling. Blame the squirrels :)
Poison ivy looks different; it has those distinctive "three-leaf" clusters quite early. Just pulled up a few of those in my yard.
Posted by: Corbie | July 01, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Agree with oak seedling. For some reason I think every acorn that hit the ground last year germinated; with my 20 or so oaks, I have thousands! Maybe it was last year's drought making the trees think they were dying.
Posted by: bev | July 06, 2008 at 05:12 PM
Agree with oak seedling. For some reason I think every acorn that hit the ground last year germinated; with my 20 or so oaks, I have thousands! Maybe it was last year's drought making the trees think they were dying.
Posted by: bev | July 06, 2008 at 05:12 PM
Add another vote for oak tree - I must have pulled 100 this spring, all looking just like that and all having acorns attached.
Posted by: Kim | July 07, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Yep - you've got an oak.
Posted by: Wicked Gardener | July 11, 2008 at 07:24 PM
Well, it seems there's a consensus :) They're oak seedlings. Dozens and dozens of them! Having all of these for the first time this spring definitely correlates with having our first squirrels. Squirrels clearly have an important function as oak-tree-planters.
Posted by: Julia | July 14, 2008 at 06:59 PM
An increase in acorns and other nuts in some years is the phenominom known as masting.
I noticed it was quite heavy in Maryland in 2006. I'm not sure about 2007.
I wrote about it here:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=masting&lastnode_id=124
Posted by: Carla | July 18, 2008 at 12:13 AM