Perhaps you’ve noticed the impressive amounts of acorns in the Woods. At this point they are present mainly as shells and caps. Nonetheless, several trails passing under red oak trees are paved with the remains of last fall’s bumper crop of acorns. The fruit of trees, such as acorns, are called mast, and years when trees produce abnormally high amounts of fruit are called mast years. Last fall red oaks masted across northern Michigan, and in our Woods.

The masting has had consequences in our Woods. First to notice the mast year were our deer harvesters. They commented that last fall the deer spent much time feeding on acorns along the bay’s edge, complicating the harvest. The large mast is also apparent in our Woods now as seedlings. Take a look at the trail’s edge and you’ll see many oak seedlings, more than we’ve had in year’s past. A closer look will reveal some of the seedlings that grew from last fall’s acorns. Brush aside the leaf duff, and look for an acorn at the base of the seedling’s stem (see photo below). Note that often the germinated acorns are not buried.

Intriguingly, how trees coordinate a mast across vast regions is not well understood (The Lingering Mysteries of the Mast Year). As for why oaks mast, a frequently stated explanation is masts overwhelm the acorn predators ��️ and increase the likelihood an acorn will successfully produce a tree. To read more about last fall’s mast year in Michigan, link here: Got acorns? Michigan has tons and tons, amid ‘mast year’ for oaks.