LL's "walk in the woods"

[SwampDonkey]

Not sure of the situation down there, although I have been in those North Georgia woods. Definitely not enough experience with them, just brief excursions.  But, it might be as abundant as yellow birch there, kinda sparse. Just going by the text of dendrology that suggests it's more in the northern portion of the east.

Kinda like red oak here, once you leave the major rivers and Grand Lake it's not found very often. Not rare, but not as common as maple for instance.

referring to Q. bicolor here.

[LeeB]

 I don't know what it is, but we got em in north central Arkansas. I figured out the oak part. Looking forward to the rest of it so I can identify another of the local trees. There are so many more to get to know than where I was in central Texas. You fellows are great. Thanks for all the learnen.

[Tom]

The Appalachians will mess your head up.  You find stuff from way up north on one side of the mountain and stuff from farther south on the other side of the mountain.  You still might be right, I'm mostly going on a mental comparison of the picture and the trees on my place.  I have quite a few Swamp Chestnut Oaks and have been told that it is  the most dense in the county.  That may be true, because I've not seen many outside of this quadrant.

[WDH]

I am with DonK on this one.  It is a chestnut oak, Quercus prinus.  Grows in the upper piedmont and the mountains on hills and slopes.  Swamp Chestnut Oak is a bottomland/swamp species.  You would never find Swamp Chestnut Oak on those North GA hills. 

The bark is different too, the Chestnut Oak is blocky and forms distinct v-shaped grooves while, like Tom points out, the Swamp Chestnut Oak bark is scaly, more like a White Oak, Quercus alba.  The bark in your pic, LL, is definitely Chestnut Oak.

LeeB,

I bet your oak is Chinkapin Oak, Quercus muhlenbergii.  The leaves are very similiar, except that they have little swollen gland-like structures on the tips and the bark is scaly like White Oak.  Of course, you might have Chestnut Oak too, but the bark will not be scaly it if is Chestnut Oak.  It will be like LL's pic here.

[LeeB]

The leaves will most likely be gone by the time I get home this time, so it will have to wait till next year for me to find and try to see if I can tell which it is.

[SwampDonkey]

The leaf looked too oblong to me for chestnut oak. Probably the plaque was a clue about being up in the hills, so it's probably chestnut oak.  Then again, maybe it was from the edge of the lake.

I was wondering is that the lake (Lanier) that is a reservoir that they pump the water up into the hills for hydropower and recreationists that kayak down it in white water? I been there. 

[Lanier_Lurker]

When I posted these pictures I was pretty sure they were chestnut oak.  Sounds like they probably are.

What surprised me about them was how similar the bark was to the actual chestnut trees I was seeing.

[Lanier_Lurker]

I was wondering is that the lake (Lanier) that is a reservoir that they pump the water up into the hills for hydropower and recreationists that kayak down it in white water? I been there. 

Nope, that would be Tallulah Falls lake, which is just upstream of Tallulah Gorge.  Every so often they turn loose a bunch of water into the Gorge and the whitewater enthusiasts line up for rides.

Further upstream on the Tallulah River is Seed Lake, which was the location of a subject of one of my other posts.  This river eventually feeds into the Savannah River.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tallulah_Falls

I think they use the diversion tunnel referred to in the Wikipedia article to release the water into the Gorge for rafters and kayakers.

[WDH]

LL,

How is your acorn crop up that way this year?

[Lanier_Lurker]

Spotty and lackluster at best.

I've found a couple of northern reds that dropped a decent crop, and one scarlet that dropped a decent crop.

The white oaks are way off for sure.

Of course, the pair of pin/shumard oaks from the other post (in downtown ATL) have a bumper crop this year.  Not sure if they might have received supplemental watering or not.

The hickories have definitely outperformed the oaks this year.  After the number of aborted hickory nuts we had after the late freeze in spring, I have been surprised at the hickory nut crop.  The mockernuts in particular are dropping average or perhaps above average crops.  And the percentage that pass the "float test" and sink in water is running over 90% (on the mockernuts).  The pignut rate is much lower.

Seems like I read somewhere that this drought year has made for a good pecan crop in south GA.

Also, the yellow poplar seem unaffected by the late freeze and drought.  I am covered with yellow poplar wingdings.  Even my persimmon tree is covered with fruit.

[SwampDonkey]

Butternut crop was poor this year, might have had something to do with that shoot moth that hit. Always a Dang bug.  Hardly any acorns here either.

[WDH]

My white oaks did pretty good.  We had more rain here than in N. GA.

[PineNut]

Here in SW MS, we have the heaviest acorn crop in several years. Guess we had the rain at the right time.