Not about words and not strictly animals, I know, but trees need space here too! And the squirrels are busy…

We are having an incredible autumn here, the trees are magnificent in colour but we are desperately short of rain. Some of our local woods must be tinder dry. Thankfully we haven’t had any fire-bugs at play, unlike poor southern California.

I have noticed that the oaks and horse chestnuts have produced huge quantities of nuts this year, although the ‘conkers’ are mostly not very large. We have a pair of big oaks in our garden and the ground beneath is a real carpet of acorns. I am wondering if trees produce nuts in this way if they are under stress from a dry summer. Putting their energy into producing seeds rather than thickening up the trunk. A survival ploy in fact, a reaction to ensure that if the parent tree dies there will be plenty of chance for saplings to spring up. Does anyone know anything about this? I have asked around and found no answers.