Oak has always been considered a symbol of strength, power, individuality. He prefers places open to the sun. If neighboring trees do not interfere with it, the oak grows into a giant with a wide spreading crown, sometimes reaching a height of over 50 m. When it comes to how an oak blooms, it turns out that few people know what an oak flower looks like, and many people don’t even suspect that the oak blossoms.
There are at least 600 species of oaks. In our area, the most common oak is pedunculate, which has a beautiful spherical crown. The oak is among the long-lived trees, the record holder, oaks are known to be over a thousand years old.
If a tree grows in freedom, oak flowers appear when it reaches the age of twenty, in dense plantations - by about fifty years. In the spring, the oak is in no hurry to let out foliage, usually this happens only by the end of April.
At the same time leaves open and oak flowers appear. Often people simply do not notice them, because in the view of many, flowers should be just flowers - large and beautiful. And in oak they are hardly noticeable and, one might even say, nondescript.
Male (staminate) oak flowers are more conspicuous. They are yellowish-green in color, very small and collected in inflorescences resembling thin earrings. In whole bunches they hang down. Among the leaves, they are difficult to notice, in color they merge with young foliage.
Female (pistillate) oak flowers are even harder to see. They are the size of a pinhead, located on special thin stems singly or in several pieces. Acorns are then formed on these stalks.
When male oak flowers open, their pollen is viable for about 5 days. In favorable weather (sunny and windy), pollination occurs safely, in rainy weather it stops, and when frost occurs, the inflorescences can generally crumble. Oak yields good crops of acorns once every 7-8 years.
Acorns just love wild boars. People use them for animal feed, acorns are used to make a coffee drink. They are also harvested for sowing in order to restore oak forests. Young oak bark is used in pharmacology, it has tannins, has astringent properties. Oak forests have been cut down for many years in order to obtain very valuable timber.
Wood is used where hardness, strength, resistance to environmental influences are needed - in transport, in shipbuilding, in construction. Oak floors, parquet, laminate, furniture are widely used. They are durable, reliable, environmentally friendly, have good energy.
The natural oak color has both a pleasant golden hue, with dark and light areas of wood, and shades with a greenish or reddish tone. Oak can be processed and allows you to get different colors, from white to almost black wood, wheredominated by golden, brown, gray shades.
Bleached oak is especially popular. Only young trees have this color in nature, but over time it darkens. To obtain bleached oak, natural wood is bleached and tinted to the desired color, then varnished or waxed.
