Here's a story told by my dendro professor just last week. He showed us chestnut oak, cow oak (as swamp chestnut is called here in Louisiana) and Chinese chestnut. First he showed us chestnut oak and the acorn cap is much furrier and larger than the ones showing up in these pictures. His point was that some people mistake it for Chinese chestnut (Castenea spp.). Once you see the two nuts side by side, no problem.
So when he got to Quercus michauxii, he mentioned the flavor quality of white vs red oak acorns and that the southerners made bread from white acorns during the "War of Northern Aggression." Since bodies of both sides on the battlefield were commonly stripped by scavengers, the bodies of confederate dead could be identified by the fact that they turned brown faster, due to the tannins in the acorn bread.
Your forestry trivia fact for the day.
