The Mighty Acorn

[snowracerh]

Question - Do all ages of oaks produce catkins or only trees that are old enough to bear seeds?

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[dogghr]

Question - Do all ages of oaks produce catkins or only trees that are old enough to bear seeds?

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For the most part I would think that the oak would be of reproductive age for the male flower and subsuquent catkins to form. This would vary with oaks but most white or red oaks would be about 20 yo to produce flowers and the resulting acorns. Of course there are some oaks such as sawtooth that can produce at younger ages. The catkins are the remnants of the male expire flower and produces the pollen that will windborn pollinate the female flower hopefully. It's the green crap that covers our cars this time of year.
The word catkin is actually of Dutch origin and indeed means cat tail since they resemble such, supposedly.